Perfectionism

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#100DayProject: Watercolors-Week 2

“The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.”
― John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice

Welcome to the second week of my watercolor #100DayProject. After some experimentation, I’ve settled into a comfortable morning rhythm of painting and journaling. It occurred to me this week how both serve the same purpose—release and freedom. Both activities are about letting go, self-discovery, and seeing where it takes me. Taken in this context, it’s impossible to do it wrong. What a wonderful thought!

Things I’ve learned this week:

  • Stop painting before everything turns brown
  • Wet-on-wet is very enjoyable, but I need to go slower
  • Trying to copy other paintings can be frustrating
  • My emotional state affects the color scheme
  • I have no idea what I’m doing and it’s totally okay

I’m still trying too hard to control the paint. I ripped up and threw away two paintings this week and started over. The need to be perfect is still very present and I’m trying really hard to separate the work from any kind of judgment. I remain, as always, a work in progress. Thank you for following along on my journey and for all the wonderful comments I received last week.

Here are my offerings for Week 2:

#1
lavender ladies
standing straight-backed and quite tall
do you ever fall?

#2
swirling galaxy
locked within my busy mind
yearning to be free

#3
what dark secrets hide
behind your bright red brick wall?
I want to see all

#4
happy little sun
shining brightly down on me
do you see me try?

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#100DayProject: Watercolors-Week 1

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life.” -Anne Lamott

If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you may remember I started my photography journey this time last year by participating in the #100DayProject. It was a wonderful experience of growth and I appreciated how much feedback and advice I received throughout the process. I discovered photography was more than a passing hobby, it was something I love and will continue to do for the rest of my life.

When I saw it was time again for the #100DayProject, I did a lot of journaling about what I might do this year to grow as a creative. The idea of perfectionism kept coming up and my desire to think more out of the box. I’ve been exploring this idea of abstraction in my poetry, but I want to push myself further. As both my children did a lot of watercolor painting in their Waldorf education, and I’ve always admired how the colors blend across the paper, I decided to focus the next 100 days on exploring watercolors.

I’ve always been very critical of my lack of artistic skills. Embarrassed would probably be a more accurate word. Art, to my untrained eye, always appears to contain a fair amount of magic and natural ability I don’t possess. So, it was very important before starting this project to create some guidelines to work within. I’m not trying to learn skills or techniques, but rather to allow for exploration, stress relief, and self-expression. I’ve given myself a few guidelines:

  • be messy and imprecise
  • have fun with the process
  • don’t overthink
  • don’t plan
  • don’t judge the finished painting
  • be brave

This first week was challenging. I looked up images in books and online and when I tried to duplicate them found myself getting into the mindset of failure and comparison. It was only when I started painting my feelings and allowing myself to be silly, it started to feel more enjoyable. Each week I’ll share 3-4 paintings without commentary (other than perhaps this format of including a haiku). I hope you’ll enjoy watching me experiment with letting go.

Here are my offerings for Week 1:

#1
wiggly bright full moon
shining in a pale green sky
you grow lovely plants

#2
colors dance freely
across the watery page
revealing flowers

#3
hidden dark red sky
delicate flower bouquets
spring is almost here

#4
wavy broken lines
colorful light bright puzzle
what things do you see?