Finding Inspiration - Always A Surprise

Inspiration--From Where Does It Come?

It always happens unexpectedly. I almost never anticipate it. It happened again yesterday. What, you may ask.

Inspiration.

I never know where it will come from or when it will happen. That's what makes it even much more, well, inspirational.

Like fog in Robert Frost’s well-known poem, Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening, “It comes on little cat feet.”

That is, it sneaks up on me, and I don’t realize it, but it happened again yesterday. I was at a local art supply store to shop for some supplies and spend a generous gift certificate. I was in no hurry for a change, and took my own sweet time going up and down the aisles.

I stopped at the watercolor aisle and spent time looking over the various brands and individual colors as well as the pre-packaged sets to figure out what, if anything, I needed. I decided my own method for acquiring paint is still the best—buy what you need when you need it a good price, and don’t’ be afraid to try new colors and brands.

Something about staring at all those colors made me start to imagine the great paintings I will paint with these watercolors and how I will use them and how I will put paint to paper.

 Inspiration started to gain momentum.

 I made my way over to the paper department. There were shelves and stacks and bins of all kinds of paper. I perused a whole section of single-sheets in all weights and finishes. In addition, there was a whole aisle of paper in all sizes in both tablets and blocks, ready to take home and use.

I evaluated the full-sheet sizes of watercolor paper in both 140-lb (300gsm) and 300-lb (640 gsm) weights. What paintings I will paint with these full sheets!

I moved to the section with paper in tablets and blocks. The more sheets in a tablet and/or block, the less cost per sheet. How many paintings I will paint with all those sheets!

Ah inspiration. Now I'm painting with the best of them--Monet and Hopper and Wyeth--in my mind anyway, and that's really all that matters to me.

Happy Painting!