Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
No progress.
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Showing page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2
Message
Posted
I started this painting two weeks ago, it’s the second time I’ve attempted it. The first time it got a bit further ahead, and due to decorating put it away. I don’t know why but for some reason I threw it out. I have wanted to do this scene for some time, so started again, painting it in a different way, completing sections at a time.
Since starting it and getting to this stage, I have sat in front of it three times and just seem to freeze, total blank, and no motivation, despite wanting to complete it.
I’m hopeful that by posting this I might gain some inspiration and motivation, either that or bin it. I have done several paintings in between.
Posted
Nice colours.
It reminds me of a painting I would love to do but never have, inspired by lines from an A A Bondy song. He sings "down to the station where the trains have pulled in, see the colours of silver and gold. As the coal hits the fire and the wheels start to spin, we're going round the sun don't you know"
David
Posted
I know the feeling well, Dixie. We all do. I've several pictures I 'think' I might go back to...some I will, some I won't. Your love of all things mechanical and old gives you a hard taskmaster with every picture you undertake. This looks worth finishing to me. (Speaking for myself, sometimes it's easier to accept you can't win them all and start another picture.)
Posted
Thanks Lew it is something I would like to finish. Your right Sandi then front tractor only has the pale coat on, I would need to build up the rust colours in layers. It’s not the not knowing what’s needed, as I’m reasonably clear., the problem seems to be not being able to get on with it. The maddening thing is I like the painting and love the photo it came from.
Posted
We’ve all been there Dixie! Have you tried turning it upside down to paint? If you’re doing it from a photo this can help. Otherwise as has been suggested, turn it to the wall for a while and get on with something else, although it seems like you’ve already done that.
I don’t see any real reason it’s not working for you, but that’s one of the frustrations of painting I suppose!
Good luck. I’m sure you’ll get there eventually.
Posted
Thank you all for your comments and advice. I think the problem is that unusually for me, I desperately want to do this painting and for it to be right. It’s the worry of it not doing what I want. However having aired my anxiety, and having your comments I will just get on with it. Isn’t it surprising how something so simple can, put a stop to your work, must be getting soft I’m my old age.
Posted
Sorry you feel so bad Stan. I think with me it’s a case of not producing something as good as I want it to be. It sounds as if things in general are affecting yourself, and I don’t what if any advice I can offer, other than just keep plodding along.
Sometimes we overwork our selves and seen to come to a sudden stop, maybe a bit of time not painting will help?.
Posted
Everybody's issues are unique to themselves, and yet - we've all been, I would assume, in something like the positions described above. The more life has got in the way over the last 6 months, the less time I've had to paint and the less I've wanted to. But then I have to do a birthday card for my mother (94), and great niece (6), and would get into trouble with both if I didn't, so I took the first steps to getting some work done by buying paper, Linseed oil, a refill from my stay-wet palette, and while coronavirus is, at the very least of it, a flaming nuisance, it is enabling the cancellation of meetings and conferences, the organizing of which was swallowing my time and energy in juicy, meaty chunks. AND now I've ordered Virgil Elliott's revised version of his long out-of-print book 'Traditional Oil Painting', from Echo Point Books in the USA, and hope it arrives soon so I can get stuck into it and review it here.
We get ourselves into deep mental ruts, when work on what we used to love to do seems pointless, we convince ourselves that the last thing the world needs is yet another b. painting, we get tired, disheartened, put it off, run the risk of just giving up; and some do just give up. But my answer is - put on some music you know gets you moving (probably not Chopin's funeral march...), look out of the window or go for a walk in your nearest park or stretch of countryside and look at what you could and should be painting, or just doodle - with pencil, brush, pen, anything, on bits of paper that don't matter very much if you get it wrong. But don't force it - if you'd rather read a book, have a snooze, even sit around and have a good mope, do that: sooner or later the urge returns - the advice may be to practise every day, but I never have; if it's amateurish to wait for inspiration, well - OK, I'm an amateur: but I wait for inspiration. It comes - when it's ready. And it'll be ready when you give it the room to develop, relax and let it visit.
Showing page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2