The Muse Needs to Find You Working

This is my art-making process...Get a variety of boards of different sizes (my current series ranges from 12"x12" to 36"x36").Choose a colour palette (I may add to it at times, but generally the whole series will stay within this palette).Start out by just experimenting and playing with paint (as well as pencil, ink, crayons, collage .. whatever comes to hand and feels like fun).Work on several pieces at once.Make a giant, fun mess.Keep layering on paint and other elements.See something in one or two of the paintings - a glimpse of the destination - and start trying to resolve them.Finish a few ...Get hopelessly stuck with some others.Make things worse by trying to force a resolution. This is known as the ugly teenager stage.Keep working. See some glimmers again of something I like.Keep working.Look at all the "ugly teenagers" and tell myself they will never amount to anything. Swear. Drink some wine. Despair that I have no talent. Drink some more wine.Come back the next day and start working again - experimenting and playing - knowing that the paintings will eventually find their way.Things will suddenly click with one or two and I can guide them home. (This 36" x 36" feels like it just needs some tidying up here and there).But that still leaves a lot of problem children to be resolved.Sometimes I picture my still-to-be-born paintings, out there in the ether, watching me labour to bring them to life. I think they must sometimes get very frustrated with me ("Come on!," I picture them yelling as they jump up and down, "just get on with it. I'm right here!!") But of course, I can't see them yet. I won't see them until at some point, out of the blue, I make a mark or stick down a piece of collage paper, and suddenly the painting comes to life.I sold this painting last week.It's one of my favourites but it was a real struggle for quite a while. Eventually, I sanded some of the paint back and that was when the painting showed me the way. From that point on, it was easy.I have no idea why some paintings take so long while others are resolved quickly.All I know is that they all come in time. I just have to show up and keep working. Because if I'm not putting in the work, the paintings can't be born.Your process may be completely different from mine. You may prefer to paint representationally. You may know your subject from the very start. You might work on one piece at a time. But whatever your style or preferences, you really do have to be working in order for the Muse to find you.So .... are you?