Being brave is, I think, a very personal concept. What one person can do with ease, another may require a lot of bravery for (I'm thinking here about how my sons can go down super steep water slides while I can't bear to - to name just one example!).
That said, I generally consider myself quite good at being brave: putting myself out of my comfort zone, thinking: would I rather do this thing I don’t want to do or regret not doing it later. That tactic has seen me through all sort of instances I would not have anticipated!
But a challenge I face with painting is that I regularly feel I need to approach it with bravery, which stems, I think, from my fear of failure. I love that I don’t know how a painting will turn out when I start it. But that thought is equally terrifying too! Sometimes the unknown results in happy surprises; sometimes in paintings that just don’t work…
When the latter happens, I try to remind myself that fortune favours the brave. So when something doesn’t work out as expected, I challenge myself to mix it up, get bolder, be braver and see what happens next. To trust in the joy of experimenting.
It has been this approach which has fuelled my love of painting with palette knives. I still use brushes too, but I love the freedom that palette knives give me - the way they cut up the paint, create textures and lead to unexpected surprises - my favourite being the bird that appeared in this mountain scene. It was completely unplanned, but a friend saw it camouflaged there and pointed it out to me. Can you spot it? (I'll give you a clue, it's in the highest mountain, looking to the right.)
So in the weeks ahead, I'll be gathering my bravery and going bold as I revisit a couple of paintings that have been lurking in my studio, not quite right, awaiting some inspiration.
And now I've acknowledged the challenge, suddenly it feels less scary, and I remember that sometimes being brave can feel fun!
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