Summer 2016 b

Thoughts
From
My
Mountain
Top
Remember the friend I told
you about when I talked
about creative block in the
last issue? The one who was
about to give up painting forever?
Well I have to be honest, she is a bit
like a dog with a bone sometimes and
she’ll worry at a problem until there’s
no bone left and she has to dig up another
one! This week she has been bemoaning
the fact that she flits around
all over the place and can’t stick with
one idea or style. ‘Why don’t you try
them all?’ I said as I reached a near
terminal state of exasperation. Result!
She hadn’t thought of that! Why
shouldn’t she indeed? After all what’s
stopping her? Some unwritten law that
says you MUST focus and develop a
style or forget about being a painter?
Actually I think it all boils down to remembering
the importance of having
‘fun’ with your work. Fun can be a
tad illusive sometimes if you are trying
to make art your business. In fact
many people prefer to remain gifted
amateurs rather than to risk losing the
joy of creativity because they ‘have’ to
create in order to live. But I maintain
that even for the ‘pro’ the fun or joy
of it all has to be an important ingredient
in the process even if there’s a
certain amount of creative angst along
the way. In fact the day I completely
stop feeling that I am getting a modicum
of fun out of it all I will close the
studio door.
One time when I was very stuck another
painter friend of mine was talking about
her work and said: “I do it because it
makes me feel good”. That was a good
reminder at that moment and helped to get
me moving again. I had been agonising
so much about the ‘validity’ of my work
that I had completely lost touch with why
it was I wanted to be an artist in the first
place - painting was something I loved to
do and it gave me pleasure.
Of course for many of us creativity is also
a ‘fix’, a daily necessity which I think has
much in common with daily meditation -
it is all absorbing and focussing and you
can not do without it for very long because
actually when all is said and done, it does
make you feel better and after all one day,
just possibly, you might produce something
really good! What’s so great about
making art is that it is a never ending journey.
There are always new places to discover.
There are no limits of time or destination
on this journey, other than those in
your head.
I love discovering new places both physically
and in my head and in mountain
countryside that possibility is endless.
So when I’m not working I’m walking. I
have access to literally hundreds of paths
through the mountains from our back door
and particularly at this time of year the
pleasure of that daily walk is a marvel and
a wonderful source of replenishment.
With the arrival of Spring we look
down onto a valley planted with miles
of cherry and nectarine trees – a cloud
of pink that stretches for miles. On the
mountain slopes the mimosa has now
given way to vast swathes of brilliant
yellow broom and bushes of wild lavender
providing a veritable orgy of
pollen for hundreds of thousands of
bees. The temperature on the mostly
sunny days is up around the 20’s, the
eagles are soaring, the mountain tops
are glowing – all in all not a bad way
to start off a day in the studio!
By
Annie
Taylor
4