An article about ensuring you take time in life to breathe made me think of how I feel when I’m painting or drawing.
When creating art I generally get very absorbed in what I’m doing. This helps me to forget the stresses of life and allows me to focus totally on the here and now.
I remember doing my O Level (GCSE) Art drawing exam at age 15. We had 3 options of items to draw, the hardest of which was a large black coloured microscope and of course I chose the hardest! I don’t remember how long the exam was but probably 2 -3 hours. I started drawing and got so into what I was doing I was only vaguely aware of the bell going for lessons for the rest of the school, and totally unaware of anything else in the room. It was almost like an out-of-body experience – one minute I started drawing and what seemed like a few minutes later at the end of the exam time I looked down to see what I’d drawn: a perfect microscope.
Over the years I’ve noticed the same – once I get into the drawing I tend to become absorbed and after a couple of hours notice how hungry I am!
This is what I’d call “breathing” – taking time out of the “real world” and doing something I love.
However, I’ve also noticed that when I’m painting I sometimes hold my breath! Especially when painting a very thin line or adding that last little drop of paint, hoping not to ruin the painting.
This happened recently when I worked on an acrylic painting – not ballet art for a change.
This painting was created using a pouring method. I pre-mixed all the colours with water and PVA in plastic cups. This takes quite some time as you have to get the consistency right otherwise the paint either doesn’t blend or it immediately drips off the edge of the canvas. The canvas was laid out on a table covered with cardboard so as not to ruin it.
Then I poured colours in various places and poured more on top. For example, pouring a little black puddle and then pouring some yellow into the black, pouring some white into the yellow etc. These were dotted over the whole canvas. Once I’d used up all the colours I tilted the canvas in various directions to get them to mix and flow.
I was so absorbed in what I was doing I alternately held my breath and let out deep sighs! It’s a little stressful as you never know how the paint is going to mix and whether or not it’s just going to end up as one big mess, but it’s also fun to see how it blends. Of course, being so caught up in what I was doing I didn’t notice the drops of paint on the floor or the paint that got on my arms and down the front of my top (a top I use for painting thankfully). When I finished I looked down to see the black drops of paint I’d stepped in and walked around the floor (no carpet – again thankfully!) and noticed my top stuck to my stomach because there was so much paint on it – and later discovered the paint had gone straight through so my skin was also covered.
I wasn’t sure about using so many different colours but I had to use all the paints I had in order to have enough to cover the whole canvas. There’s some iridescent green and blue, fluorescent pink, bright orange, blue, green, black and white. Looking forward to buying some new paints now!
Needless to say, it was a lot of fun and I’m pleased with the result. It took 4 days to dry and I now have it hanging on the wall so I could take some photos.
Here are some pictures of it:
So, yes – take time to breathe, do something you love whether it’s going for a 10-minute walk through the trees or a couple of hours creating a painting – but do remember to actually breathe 😉
Here’s the original article that inspired this blog post.