Art for an Hour a Day

I finally had to crack the whip. In fact I’m still having to do it. It’s day 8 and I’ve painted 7 out of the 8. I’m like a kid in that I started using a calendar and a red marker and every day I paint I get to put a slash across the day, and I really want to see the calendar full of red slashes by the end of the month! Putting a red slash through the day can be suprisingly motivating!

I have ADHD, I’ve learned to work with it and what that means is I have to look at my goals with art… like a chore. I want to sit in a clean house. I don’t want to clean the house. What do I do? I make myself clean the house so I can enjoy the goal of sitting in a clean house. Just like painting, or excercising, sports or math, the results are the fun part. The doing…. meh.

I love seeing the progress in my paintings everyday. I remember the colors I used and the mood from the start to finish. Last year I focused on finishing what I start. Wow is that hard for someone with ADHD. I’m sticking to those goals and resisiting the urge to start a new and or work on something else. I need to finish this group of 5 or 6. If you want to oil paint every day you have to work on several paintings at once. Otherwise you would end up with one muddy painting! Last year I also focused on speed. A quick wash, then straight to embellishing.

This year I need to step it up. Sales are going to be tough. I guess the obvious thing for me to do is embellish more heavily. It would be the next obvious evolution from what I’m doing now. It’s not just the idea in your head but the work you do will guide you. All you have to do to get good at something is just start doing it. Talent is over rated. It’s about work, practice, consistency, experimenting and when need be, crack the whip!

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