Why You Should Ugly Paint (and Unintended Consequences)
Sally has been stuck for a while (not her real name but we’ll call her Sally). She wants to paint “big, messy, emotional” paintings, but she always ends up making somewhat tight, small pieces that don’t satisfy her.I decided to make a short video to see if I could help. I have a theory that when you are scared of something, the best thing to do is to face the worst case. So if you can’t make big messy brush strokes because you think the painting will be horrible, just set out to make a horrible painting. That way there’s nothing to be afraid of! That’s what I did in this short video.https://youtu.be/hntZd5ItSwMThe video is in real time, so you can see that the horrible painting only took a few minutes to make (excuse the appalling production values) But here’s the magic part, My intention was to help Sally get unstuck – no idea if I will achieve that - but I ended up helping myself ... in more ways than one.First, I had several ‘stuck’ paintings of my own. The one in the video was one of them. Now it’s no longer in that place. I have something exciting to react to. At the moment, it looks like this.
Yes, it's a mess. A big old mess.BUT, it's a mess with life and potential, which the old painting didn't have.Second, I like the palette so much that I moved across to a second ‘stuck’ piece and worked on that one with the same vigour – it’s now also a messy painting – but it has some juice. There is energy there. It’s moving again.
And finally, I had been feeling low personally after a hard week and I had felt some resistance to going into my studio at all. I went in to help Sally – but the act of putting paint onto boards filled me with uncomplicated joy as it always does. And it allowed me to express my emotions by making something (as opposed to wandering about out on the moors feeling sorry for myself like a modern-day Kathy, only in wellies and a raincoat instead of a long frock).That’s the thing about helping other people. It often winds up as something more. I thought I was making my little film for Sally … but maybe I was really making it for myself.If you'd like to join us in the group and get help with your own challenges, just click here - it's completely free and you'll probably be doing me a favour! And if you'd like to read more like this, sign up for my Sunday newsletter - I have been where you are and I'd love to help.