in between stage

Rockwall Pond-2014

Rockwall Pond Study 2

I am in another one of those moments of block, both in writing, painting, everything. It's one of those frustrating creative times where you walk around in circles. literally, as if there is something on the tip of your brush or pen and yet nothing comes. I have been pushing pastels around, pushing paint here and there and yet nothing materializes.

I believe as horrible as this in-between time can be it is a foreshadowing of things to come. I think that both in the inspiration stage and the processing stage there is a period of fermentation when the skills and knowledge of the subject do not equal the intent. I have seen images literally materialize over the course of a year or even as much as twenty years. Every part of the process is equally important.

Instead of stressing and feeling the lack of productivity as a stumbling block I choose to look at it as a interim between creative highs. Getting back to pastels instead of oils gives me the immediacy of sketching without a specific outcome, I believe this allows the creative vision to grow out of the block naturally instead of succumbing to the awkwardness of pushing around paint. These images are all in-between stages of pastels that haven't completely gelled.

I have created these images mostly from memory which is why the details are a bit softer and less specific, another aspect is the medium, pastels tend to be a bit more free form and less detailed. I am in the process of doing a series of ten very small pastel studies that may or may not turn into actual finished paintings.

Wisconsin at the end of winter-sketch from 2006