Sometimes when faced with a blank canvas I used to catch myself procrastinating. I felt like making those first brush strokes might ruin the whole painting before it’s even progressed. That all changed after listening to Nicholas Wilton from Art2Life. He recommended going straight in and making the first marks with paint or pen to get over the fear immediately. He’s right of course. Quite often the first layer becomes covered or partially covered by subsequent layers of paint.

These days I can’t wait to throw myself into the process of beginning a new painting. I feel a fizz of excitement and can even wake in the wee hours feeling excited about the new canvas waiting in the studio.

Other artists in the Connected Artist Club to which I belong warn of the “ugly” middle stages of creating a painting. The part where you want to throw in the towel and give up altogether. During this stage I have felt like a fraud, like I have no idea how to paint at all. It was such a relief to hear other artists talk about this stage. I wasn’t alone at all and maybe, just maybe not a fraud.

The trick is to keep on trusting the process, doing my best to ignore my inner critic and judge, and just enjoy what happens. I find it easier if I distract that inner critic by listening to podcasts or music while I’m painting. Sometimes I finish a podcast and think “wow, that’s not bad!” when I look over what’s happened on the canvas.

This is the beginning of a pretty large commissioned painting which is 2 metres long by 1 metre. What fun to get started on that one, and I can’t wait to get back to it. You can watch the beginning stages here.