If you want to paint, you gotta work those painting muscles

Sometimes, writing blog posts is easy for me. Words just roll off my fingertips, as if I’m talking to a friend as we sip our hot coffee in a cafe. Other times, ugh. I can literally sit here all day typing and deleting three simple sentences, not happy with any of them. It’s so painful to be a blogger when I’m having word constipation, as I like to call it. Words get all backed up in my head, and I can’t get them out on the page without a lot of work and frustration. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s easiest to write when I write every day, which is why I’ve upped my daily blog posts once again as you might have noticed. I’m not putting pressure on myself to blog every day, but I am blogging more often. It’s happening naturally, not forcefully.

Although you might like the added benefit of having more blog posts to read, it’s actually a selfish move on my part. I’ve found that if I’m only writing once or twice a week, it’s makes my blogging life so much more difficult. I can’t seem to get the words flowing or find my writing groove or voice. I’ve often thought about taking my posts down to only one a week because it would save so much time, but I’m convinced it would actually cost me time in the long run. When I don’t write for long periods of time, it becomes nearly impossible to write anything at all.  

scraping oil paint
aren’t these colors lovely?
I mixed them myself

If I sit down to write every day, one blog post often leads me to another one. Take this one for example, as I’ve been sitting here fleshing it out, I’ve actually split it up into three other posts so far. Ideas have branched off into other ideas, and ah..I find it so much easier to deal with having too many words than not enough. I can get an entire week’s worth of blogs started in one sitting this way because the words and ideas are flowing. I just open up a new tab and start copy and pasting, which leads to jotting down words for my next post, and before I know it another post is finished. 

Not surprisingly, it’s the same with painting. When I paint daily, it becomes easier for me. I can easily knock out several paintings in a week, sometimes several a day if I’m on a roll. However, if I only paint once a month, it becomes so difficult. I get rusty. Nothing flows right. I’m stiff and rigid. I start to question every brushstroke or knife mark, and I live in my head too much. You gotta work those painting muscles, just like the old writing ones. I’ve always said if I paint a lot, I’ll paint a lot more. Painting leads to more painting because once I start, it’s hard to stop. As I paint, ideas for new paintings start happening, and before I know it, I’ve got 5 or 6 brand new paintings started, which in turn leads to 30, 50, 100 more. I rarely, if ever, get artist block because I never stop painting. 

If you’re feeling stuck, I have written a post about a painting exercise that can get you going again. 

Hey, be sure to check out my studio sale going on exclusively at Daily Paintworks. It only happens once in a great while..like every couple of years, so don’t pass up the opportunity. I don’t think my prices have ever been this low before. Savings up to 75% off my regular prices on some paintings. I need to make room for new paintings coming in 2017. Help me out, get a great painting (or 3 or 4), and save a bundle in the process. It’s a win win situation for both of us.