Planning Your Next Motif for a Painting

Dusk on Main Street
Acrylic on Paper
Copyright 2011

In a recent blog I talked about the exhilaration of completing a painting. At least that’s the way I feel or thought I felt about the happy occasion.

Seems several of you and several artist friends disagree. Their perspective is that rather than being an up-beat occasion, it is a time of melancholy and a sense of loss. What?

It appears that many artists love the process of creating so much that when it ends, even temporarily until the next painting is started, it sends them into a brief tailspin.

I suppose I can grudgingly agree with that. After spending years, months, days—choose one—working on an art “project,” it becomes part of your life. Or at least it is part of your daily routine. And when it’s over, the emptiness it leaves is a real downer for some. It’s not devastating, of course, but it can be acute.

Maybe it’s the half-empty, half-full way of looking at things, but I’m usually very ready to move on to the next thing.

If you have this issue (notice—I didn’t call it a problem) here’s a suggestion. Do what I do, and start thinking about, searching for, and planning your next motif about the time when you’ve got your current painting blocked-in. There’s still a lot, if not most, of the real work to do on your painting, but you’re usually more than half-way done at this point.

That’s the time to find your next motif. Similar to getting a new puppy or kitten when your elderly dog or cat is in decline, it doesn’t keep them from passing on, but it does give you a replacement when it inevitably happens.

Anyway, today’s image is my completed painting that I told you I had almost finished in the last blog. Taking my own advice, I had my next painting all ready to go and have started work on it as I write.

Happy Painting!