Never Say Never: The Importance of Continual Growth

Recently, green has been finding its way into my work. It has tried to find its way in before, but usually it is stymied by my lack of ability to mix greens that I like.

So this time, when it appeared, I decided to do something about my mental block around this quintessential landscape colour. I decided to do some colour mixing.

I’m sharing the process with you in a video, but I also wanted to say something about this. After posting one of my green paintings, I got many comments from people saying some version of “but I thought you didn’t like green?”

I find this fascinating.

To me, my struggles with green make it inevitable that I will return to it again and again until I have conquered it. It never occurred to me to give up on it.

But many of the people who follow me assumed that if I hadn’t been successful with green, I just wouldn’t use it. Ever.

The way I look at it is that some things in life come easier than others. But often, the most worthwhile things are those we have to work at.

I am now happily exploring greens – and I am especially interested in those made with black or the warmer dark blues. This doesn’t mean every painting will now contain green but it does mean that when the work is telling me to introduce green, I will do it – and now I’ll be better equipped to do it well.

Here is the video I made about my approach to exploring colours. (This video was originally made for my membership site Art Tribe, but occasionally I share selected videos with everyone and this is one of those times).

I hope you enjoy :)

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