Painting and the Elusive State of Ease

I’m currently working with a coach who talks a lot about "ease.” By this she means relaxing into life and letting things just be easy, rather than constantly trying to control and manage events and people.As a gold-plated control freak, this is not a simple concept for me. I mean I get it … I understand what she’s saying and it makes total sense (why fight so hard to control things when they’re totally out of your control anyway?!) but my natural defaults are think, plan, work, control … not relax, ease, accept.I’m currently framing paintings for a show and it has me thinking. Some of my favourite pieces are the ones that came easily. They just seemed to come from nowhere. I’ve written before about this painting, which I spent 2 months turning into this, layer after painful layer. At some point I called it finished – in retrospect not because it really was but just because I was sick of looking at it.  But as it sat there waiting for an upcoming show, it kept niggling at me. Because I knew it wasn’t right. Even stuffing it under the bed didn’t help – it kept talking to me even from under there! Eventually I dragged it out, stripped the wax finish off it and went in with completely different colours.A few hours later, I had this and I knew it was done. Not only that but it was WAY better than the one I worked on for so long.It’s as though, once I let go of the idea I was clinging to, the painting was free to make itself. I was no longer getting in the way. And I’m just now realizing that this is also the way that life works.Trying to exert control over the uncontrollable is obviously futile. But there’s more to it than that … it’s not just futile – it’s actually detrimental. Because the energy that we expend in trying to achieve whatever we have decided is ‘the right thing’ is blocking the path and stopping what should be happening from happening. We are quite literally getting in our own way.Once we give in, relax, and move into a state of ease, everything can flow properly. In life and in art, it’s only when we decide to let go completely that the magic can happen.