Art Frustration

I seem to be in a bit of an art block. Even with a list of goals, right now, I've lost my direction, or mojo, or muse. I'm not entirely sure why. I have been continuing to sketch and work on pieces of larger projects but what I really want to do is start another art quilt.

I have spent weeks looking at photos and trying to decide what I want that art quilt to look like. I decide on something, start a watercolour painting of it and lose interest. None of the subjects I've chosen make my heart sing. I have learned that if I am not into a subject, it's not going to be successful so I abandon them. I'm not sure that is the right way to deal with it.

Perhaps I should power through. Look at the subject from a different perspective or change the composition, colours, values. Ask myself what made me choose that photo in the first place and capitalize on that.

A few weeks ago, I thought I had found what I wanted to do.

This was the photo, I had selected.

This is the watercolour I started of it. I didn't finish the painting because I felt it lacked something. I thought I chose the photo for the scenery so I left out the canoes. Perhaps the canoes are what make the scene interesting. I also think I need to tweek the colours; they're a bit boring.

This is another photo I selected to do. I thought the purple mountains looked nice against the fields and trees in the foreground. 

This is the painting I started and then put away because I felt it was also boring.

I looked at it some more today and decided not to try to paint every tree but just put down colour and value. I darkened the mountains and the sky and gave the foreground more dimension. Perhaps I'll put in some complimentary colours such as reds in the foreground and maybe some yellow in the sky. I'm starting to feel it again. I'm also thinking about how I will piece and quilt it. I may be able to thread paint the trees and other details. I have to remind myself that when it is done with fabric, the art quilt is always more vibrant than the painting I do. We will see if this develops into something.

Well, this was therapeutic. Thanks for listening. Hopefully that is the end of my block.