It's Like Magic!

Magic happens when we get out of the way.

I wonder why I have to learn this lesson over and over again.

I've been working on a series of pieces that haven't yet found their way. They excite me, I know they have potential and I know they want to be something... but what I don't know.

This week I reached an impasse. I know they're not finished, but I have no idea what to do next. And then yesterday I found myself feeling really down. Life was getting on top of me. Usually my answer to this is to go and paint, but I couldn't do that because my paintings were stuck. That's when I thought about my gelli plate.

Having just given mine to someone else, I had ordered a new one and there is sat all shiny and new just waiting for me to have a play.

(If you don't know what a gelli plate is, it's just a simple floppy clear plate used for print-making. Look it up on Youtube and you'll go down a real rabbit hole!)

I watched a few Youtube videos but they were mostly quite twee and crafty with people using stamps and stencils to make pretty patterns or art journal pages and that wasn't what I had in mind. I wanted to make collage papers that looked like me.

So I just started playing. I just started asking myself "what would happen if I did x?" and then "what would happen if I did y?"

At first my prints were muddy and uninspiring but soon I learned how to make them clearer. I learned that I loved my secondary print best (that's when I took my wet print and pressed it onto another piece of paper to get a second print).

I learned that I loved to leave bits of colour on the plate and see them come through on the next print.

I learned I loved to draw into my paint with bold marks - I preferred my own hand-drawn circles to the ones that come from a stencil and I enjoyed making crosses for some reason.

Then I thought "I wonder if I could make my own stencils?" So I gave it a go.

The first ones I cut were too fragile - made of thin paper, they disintegrated after a few tries. But old watercolour paintings made a more solid surface and so I cut into those using scissors and a craft knife.

I made the shapes I felt like making - no rhyme or reason - and then began to print. Wowee! I loved the effect - especially if I scrunched up my paper to create a kind of distressed effect. (I was using wet-strength tissue paper and newsprint, both of which can be easily scrunched.)

These were rocks and yet not rocks - they were the stones that make up the dry stone walls all around me and yet they were abstracted. That was not my plan when I started, but now I was intrigued... what could I do with these simple rock shapes?

I cut another stencil - this one satisfied me less for some reason - perhaps it veered too close to looking like an actual wall - but I could still experiment with colours. I found that Paynes Grey and Indian yellow combined to make a delicious green, while Indian yellow and raw umber made a different, but equally gorgeous, greeny-brown. I discovered that different levels of pressure created different textures and I found favourites among them.

I printed my rocks in reds and oranges and pinks and greens and browns and greys and blacks. I printed them until I ran out of paper and couldn't find a spot to stand on my studio floor!

They were magical. Pure perfection in all their imperfection. And also utterly without point if we judge these things by whether they produce a finished product. After all, I still don't know where they fit in or if they will help moved my paintings along. But I do know this: I was in flow making them and so they mean something.

This is the key to everything for me - when I am feeling true flow - true joy - I am on the right track. I know now that this always leads somewhere good. (I believe that's true for all of us by the way).

I plan to continue as soon as my new paper arrives ... I'll make more stencils and see where they lead me. Maybe they will be more rock-like shapes or maybe something else will come - I've learned not to try to jump ahead but just keep asking myself "what would happen if ...?"

That's when the magic always happens.

A Question for You...

As you were reading that story, did you recognise yourself in it? Do you also ask yourself questions and then dive in to answer them?

I ask because when I posted my results on Instagram, I got a lot of comments and messages saying some version of "I have a gelli plate but I have been too scared to take it out of the box."

As if it might explode!

I think the main difference between artists who succeed and those who stay stuck is this: it's simply doing the thing, answering the question, venturing into unknown territory.

My first thought with something new is "OK let's see how this works and what I can do with it."

I hope yours is too.

But many peoples' first thought is: "I don't know what to do so I'll wait to see if someone else can teach me."

The problem with that is that you don't find your own way. You learn a new technique but you don't move your art forward.

By all mean watch a few Youtube videos but then just notice those little questions that bubble up in your mind ...."I wonder if I could...." or "I wonder if that would work." And then go try it and see. The worst that will happen is your thing looks rubbish and you will have learned something. Then you can either paint over it or enjoy its warmth as you burn it in the fire. (Win either way LOL.)

Nothing is ever wasted when we're making our art provided we follow our own nudges.

Not to get too spiritual but I think the universe knows exactly what kind of art we are capable of making and it is nudging us there all the time by popping little questions into our brains or urging us to buy a particular art material or take a particular course.

All we have to do is answer the questions.

All we have to do is sign up.

All we have to do is open the box and take the thing out!

And then just watch as the magic happens :)