Inspiration tantrums

 Plumb Tuckered Out

5" x 7" oil on panel

Available from Etsy - $50 plus shipping

Inspiration is one of those strange things.  There is nothing constant about, no predictability, no reliability either.  It can be as elusive as a needle in a haystack or it floods your head with so many ideas you don't know where to start.

What is inspiration exactly?  The Oxford dictionary definition is:

"The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative."

When inspiration evades us, it can be coaxed out of hiding by ignoring it completely and just carrying on in any creative vein.  Like a toddler having a tantrum, if ignored, it stops crying and thrashing around and becomes curious about what you're doing.  Curiosity is replaced by the "I want to do that too." phase and before you know it, inspiration takes over your hand and head and is slapping paint on the canvas like never before.

Each time I finish a painting, inspiration drains a little and that's where I pull out the small canvasses like this one and just play.  I can see inspiration poking her head around the corner, sniffling a little but curious too...