Giving Up or Letting Go? How a values-based art practice shapes a painting.

I'm still processing my emotions following my livestream demonstration for Opus Art Supplies last week.

Sometimes there are reverberations to a painting session that seem to hold a note of meaning that endures beyond the time spent painting. Have you experienced this? I'm feeling it after Friday because the words I opened the session with came back full circle as the final painting emerged. Let me explain:

My Values-Based Artistic Practice

As I prepared for the demonstration, I thought about my artist's statement. Not as a prepared description so much as the ethic that supports my art. My paintings reflect what I am learning about identity; that it is when I let go of the things I hold onto to keep me safe or to show how skilled or knowledgeable I am that I allow myself to show up flawed and imperfect and with more questions than answers. This is where my most authentic, personal art emerges.

As I prepared for the demo, I thought about how I wanted to not only express this idea of letting go, but to share it with authority and without apology. My paintings aren't intuitive and unstudied on a whim, but out of a deep conviction that this offers something truer than control and technical prowess can convey.

And as I painted, not only did I find my words expressing this idea, but I found myself being tested by the painting itself. As I talked about experimenting with different ideas and about how being willing to challenge what you think you know and can anticipate is a key to creating a more expansive artistic style and practice, I found the painting demanding exactly that, and I realized that I was still holding on to an idea that maybe I could do both; show my skill as an artist and demonstrate an intuitive approach founded on the idea of letting go. And my process demanded that I let go of one of those ideas.

Letting Go to Serve the Painting

I believe in serving the painting. Anything I think I can do is irrelevant if the painting doesn't want it, if the painting will be served better by giving it more room to emerge. I get to be a participant, but sometimes my participation is mostly about observing and facilitating only a little. But saying I believe this and recognizing and accepting it as it happens requires me to be willing to give up what doesn't serve the painting. And usually that's my expectations, and, in the case of Friday's demo, my ego, too.

The beauty of this painting demanded that I recognize it when it showed up. And that it wasn't about me. And it demanded that I trust my audience, that the 837 people who watched the livestream and those who watch the recording as well would see beyond whatever they had hoped to learn from the session to the deeper lesson being demonstrated.

When I started painting I didn't know that this was the journey, unwrapping a heart bound up in trying to be good enough and giving it room to live out from presence, intention and love. It's humbling and frustrating and beautiful.

The Heart-Led Artist Pathway is an introduction to this idea of values-based painting, creating an artistic identity around the unapologetic self while also seeking a structure for building skill in self-expression and technique. Join the course here: heartledartist.com