No Creative Blocks – Painting Grief and Loss
Even if I want these blog posts to be a celebration of art-making, I also want to paint and write from the heart. This week’s post is about sadness and its’ effects on creativity.
Here’s my latest acrylic painting called “If Grief Smoked.” Like many of the recent paintings, this also has a connection to a poem. The title is from Eeva-Liisa Manner’s poem “Jos suru savuaisi.” But this time, I didn’t follow the poem but used the title as a prompt only.
Missing Cosmo
I have been very melancholic this fall, and to be honest, building a new class Floral Freedom, has been my savior. It’s been a captivating escape from a life that feels emptier than before. My loyal companion Cosmo died in September, and it’s like a part of me has lost a purpose.
Cosmo was our family member for over 15 years, and there’s a lot I miss about him. Small things, often quite insignificant ones, like how he used to pick a sock when he wanted attention. My heart breaks when I remember how softly he did that, not leaving a single mark. In the end, he was a good dog and didn’t want to behave badly.
So yes, my grief has been smoking and burning. A wind of time has taken some away but also spread it further. When it started to feel that the grief would scorch my brushes, destroy the paints, and make the studio a smoky place, I knew it was time to paint. Not that it would take the grief away, but force me to deal with it.
Persuasion Can Replace Inspiration
Art is not always about inspiration. You know Picasso’s saying that the inspiration has to find you working. I find self-persuasion especially useful. “After this, you can paint whatever you want,” I said to myself.
If we don’t paint these paintings that need to come out, it can cause a creative block. I have had some major ones in the past, and I didn’t want that to happen now.
“Follow the color,” I said to myself like many times before. It’s a quote of my own that boosts my confidence when I am working.
Stepping Into The Painting
This scenery had been in my mind for weeks. It was like an overdue baby, pushing through the brush.
I just had to open my heart and welcome it.
Wassily Kandinsky talks about a glass between the artist and the painting, and how to remove it. It’s one of the hardest things when in grief, but also the most impactful one.
When we paint without the glass, the image becomes more personal. It doesn’t matter what other people think about it because you are living and breathing it. But oddly so, removing the glass also makes the image more general. My loss gets connected to everybody else’s losses. We are all behind the same glass, under the same blanket.
If grief smoked, we would all be covered in it. Even if it’s the saddest thing, it’s also beautiful to let go of someone or something you love. You can no longer help them, and it’s time to give them away.
Mental Queue – Images That Need to Get Painted
Art helps us with things that can’t be solved intellectually. I also think that artists have a mental queue. If we try to jump over the hard images, we don’t have the energy for the more cheerful ones that come next.
I hope this inspires you to pick the brush and paint the image that has been waiting for its turn.
When You Want Your Art to Be Less Stiff
This week, I want to be direct because I feel really passionate about this: what happens when art is stiff and why it should not be. There’s too much talk about balance and composition and too little about the stiffness of the mind.
How to Be Less Stiff and Start Painting More Loosely
I know this is what you think:
“I want my art to be less stiff.”
The modern master Paul Klee would answer:
“Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.“
Let me elaborate. There’s a door between the outer and inner world. As a painter, you choose whether you step outside or inside.
You can walk outside, pick a flower, and try to reproduce what you see. It’s often the easiest way – for a teacher too – because the comparison has more absolute rights and wrongs. Yet, many who paint realistically say that their flowers look too heavy, that the details are difficult to get right, and they wish they could be looser.
Then there’s the other way. You can step in. You can paint the line, a shape, bring tension and interaction, and slowly begin to see. Flowers of the inner world are not passive nor lonely. They have no restrictions of the real world but can fly, sing, and dream!
When you want to see further in your artistic path, you want to step in.
You don’t want to paint what’s already been seen, but bring out the invisible – how we feel. Life is full of sceneries that can’t be photographed but need to be painted.
Meadows of the soul.
Abstract masters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky spent their lives figuring out how to visualize the inner world. In Floral Freedom, we apply Paul’s and Wassily’s ingenious techniques to floral art.
I hope you will join me, pick paints and brushes, and step in. >> Sign up NOW!
Impressionistic Floral Painting on Structure Paste
This week, I show how I made an extraordinary floral painting with acrylics and structure paste. See how I achieved the historical look!
I call this piece “Old Art Yearning” because I desperately miss Europe’s palazzos and museums. It would definitely be the time to pack the bags for a few-day trip to Vienna or some other old city, but I chose differently because of the pandemic. But first, look at the interior of Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome. My husband and I visited the place on June morning in 2017, and it was pleasantly quiet, just suitable for dreaming about living there in the middle of luxury.
So, what luxurious can you do when you are asked to stay home and be safe? I decided to create something that’s like a soft drink for the old art thirst: fake but sweet and consolating!
The idea of using structure paste is from the summer, but back then, I didn’t quite see as far as I did this week.
Structure Paste Inspiration from Clay
This summer, my friend Johanna Rytkölä, a ceramic artist ran a flower pot class for a small group. My husband made a stylish and minimalistic bonsai pot, but mine came out quite different!
Even if my pot was not perfect, I wanted to experiment with a 3-dimensional surface for a painting right away. I dig out a jar of structure paste that some call molding paste as well. I have blogged about the paste twice before. In 2014, I made cardboard templates to create reliefs for a mixed media piece and in another project, I made surface textures with a variety of tools.
I decided to try the template technique again, and cut simple geometric holes to a thick cardboard.
Then I placed the template on the top of the painting board and filled the holds with structure paste.
I wasn’t completely satisfied with the edges of the structure paste shapes and put the board away.
Acrylic Painting on Structure Paste
But now, when I wanted to create something with historical feel, I remembered the board, and started painting on it. The small imperfections didn’t bother me so much anymore. All pieces can’t be so serious anyway. There has to be some room for creative play too!
I decided to paint something loose and impressionistic that would still look decorative.
On the reliefs, the strokes were sharper and more controlled than on the background.
But before I made the finishing touches, the piece looked too bare to me.
It needed a frame!
Making a Frame from Structure Paste
I still had some structure paste left and I found a piece of cardboard too. I traced the outline of the painting on a soft foam board and used that as a template for the center.
It’s not easy to make a smooth surface of the paste so I didn’t even try. Historical frames had all kinds of textures so the hills and valleys would look ok when painted.
I painted the outer edge of the frame black and the inner edge with gold paint.
The transition from black to gold became lovely when smudging the paint with fingers. I also added some gold mica flakes on the top of the gold parts and near the edge.
Then the painting got some finishing touches and gold paint too.
I also added some acrylic paint on the frame.
A Mini-Monet for Old Art Yearners!
The finished piece is a bit clumsy, but I love the historical feel.
It’s my mini-Monet!
The unevenness of the structure paste in the edges looks quite good with the gold paint.
The frame was intentionally placed so that it’s not quite in the middle. This way I could make the piece more interesting. I really like how these painted spots look like nails or blueberries!
Just cardboard, structure paste, fake gold, acrylics, but I enter the gentle world of old art by looking at it!
I display this piece in our library room which has more old-fashioned style than my studio.
My painting has simple strokes but it’s still romantic. I have bent the principles of abstract art to serve the impressionistic style. It’s so much fun to paint freely like this!
Paint Dreamy Florals to Free Your Spirit!
Floral Freedom – the floral class based on Paul Klee’s and Wassily Kandinsky’s insights on abstract art – will begin on Dec 4, 2021. In this class flowers are not just passive decorations, but they fly, sing, and dream! >> Sign up Now!
Floral Freedom is 20% off for the rest of November, so now is a good time to sign up!
>> Sign up now!
Painting Poems – Watch the Video!
This week, we’ll continue the theme of painting poems from a couple of weeks ago. I create a small painting from a poem in a video and also talk about overcoming perfectionism.
Here’s the acrylic painting that I created from Saima Harmaja‘s old poem “Olkoon niin!” I also include some examples from the class Floral Freedom at the end of this post.
Painting Poems – Watch the Video!
In the video, I show how a poem can make a painting more finished and meaningful. I also talk about why I thought I can’t paint Finnish poems and how I have realized that aiming for perfection doesn’t always help.
More Poetic Paintings
I created these two paintings for the class Floral Freedom. The first one is inspired by Anna-Maija Raittila’s poem Ruiskukkaehtoo (Cornflower Night).
And the one below is inspired by Katri Vala’s poem Kukkiva maa (Flowering Earth).
Paint Dreamy Florals to Free Your Spirit!
Floral Freedom – the abstract floral class based on Paul Klee’s and Wassily Kandinsky’s insights – will begin on Dec 4, 2021. In this class flowers are not just passive decorations, but they fly, sing, and dream! >> Sign up Now!
Floral Freedom is 20% off for the rest of November, so now is a good time to sign up!
>> Sign up now!