The Next Step

Like many of you, I’m trying to figure out what the heck I’m doing in my own art. For me, it’s frequently a love/hate relationship. It’s full of choices: Realism vs. abstract; muted vs. powerful; watercolor vs. oil or some other medium. I read about people that are happy all the time with their work and I wonder what they’re smoking, and were can I get it?

I doubt it would bug me so much if I felt I had all the time in the world to explore possibilities, wander until I bumped into the perfect combination of media/style/content by accident. I envy those lucky folks that go to art school and follow a sequence of classes with expert guides.

Life is what it is, and we are lucky to have the luxury to paint at all. And I suppose the next step is all anyone needs to know. It’s all anyone can know because the next painting could take us in a totally different direction. The challenge is to not worry about the long term direction and permit ourselves to be directed by ourselves. That’s one of the reasons why it’s such an adventure.

Above is a close up of my latest effort, “Homeless in Maui”.

Cheers,
Lynn Powers