Move Towards the Flow State!

This mixed media painting is called Waterfall. It is inspired by the light in dark spaces.

Last week, I visited two places with old glass windows. The first was National Museum of Finland in Helsinki. The second was the Finnish painter Pekka Halonen’s summer cottage “Halosenniemi” in Tuusula. Both of them were built at the beginning of 20th century. Despite their windows, there’s fairly dark inside. While walking there, I saw how dark colors can be seen as soft and how daylight can look sharp.

Perhaps the especially hot summer weather had it’s role too. No wonder I thought so positively about shadows and … water! I was tempted to use color sprays for this artwork. That way I could work outside and move around while creating.

A Big Mess with Acrylic Paints

Before spraying, I used acrylic paints to create color areas. They would work as a resist so that I could reveal them again after spraying. But the most important thing with the acrylics was: I grabbed a wide brush and said goodbye to rational thinking.

When you start with big brushes and create intersecting layers, you will naturally get into the creative mood. You will also begin to move. It’s often necessary to even stand up to make those big strokes wide enough. Check the front page of Heikki Marila’s website. He is a Finnish painter who creates huge paintings inspired by art history. See how those paintings are created, lots of movement there!

Also remember to change and mix colors as often as possible! Think that you are climbing towards the flow state where the creativity meets the happiness! Each interruption, the change in the movement and color, is one step closer to the flow.

The mess that I created with acrylics made my rational side cry and emotional side warm up. I was ready to get some fresh air and start even the bigger mess with sprays.

Entering the Flow State using Spray Mists and Handcut Stencils

Here’s the first sprayed layer. Moving around the lawn and shaking the spray bottles were like a jump towards the flow state. I shook away the last rational thoughts and entered the happy state. I was flying.

Now, this is important: Be prepared to work quickly! When you get creative, you will get faster. There should be no need to rationalize what to do next or where to get the materials. They all have to be there. I had taken the scissors and a piece of paper with me. That allowed me to create stencils while waiting the layers to dry. I had also set up the blow dryer near the back door.

Running around the back garden with spray bottles, then inside to dry layers, then back again, I sprayed about five layers in total. As a result, I got the ugly mess shown in the photo right below. But I was not worried. I thought it looked amazing! One good thing when moving towards the flow: the inner critic leaves far behind!

I ended the day with spraying some areas with water. When wiping some of the spray ink away the acrylic paint areas were revealed.

Next morning I had a problem to solve. How to finish the painting? I decided to create small geometric shapes with colored pencils to resemble the sharpness that light makes in the dark space.

Finishing with Colored Pencils

When using big brushes and big movements, creating details with small strokes adds interest and balance.

Colored pencils are wonderful to highlight the best and reshape the worst areas. When working with small details, I try to focus on one small area at the time.

In the “big” phase, my focus was in the big picture. Now, when working small, my focus is in the details.

Balanced Composition

When I had gone through all the areas, I began to look at the big picture again. Then I made the final tweaks. So here it is:

Hmm … wait a minute! Now it is upside down! Well, while coloring the work, I thought the direction would be this. But then, I noticed that it could be any of these three:

If the composition is balanced, the work will look balanced in any directions. By changing the direction, you can test if your composition is successful. Still, I rarely come to the result where changing the direction not only works but also tells the same story. I think that moving around the lawn had an impact here!

Experiment this in your art: Try to include physical movement into your creative process!

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