A False Start

Have you ever experienced a False Start? 
Maybe you know the kind...where you have an idea of something you want to accomplish. It sounds really good. But then when you actually start working on it, it's not at all what you envisioned. 

It can be really upsetting when this happens, and you wonder where you went wrong. You feel a bit thrown, perhaps off your center a bit, disappointed. You might even let out an Argh or Dang It as I sometimes like to say when I'm frustrated. ;) 

See the palette below? This is one I use for my watercolor painting. Actually, I have two, just in case I decide to do more than one painting at a time (which I haven't done as of yet, just with my art journal). 

Do you  notice the residue from the Winsor Blue paint in the upper right corner and in one of the small round areas? Yep, that's where I had my paint placed for a new painting I was about to start. 

But it's not there anymore, is it? Not. Nope. I took it out within 5 to 10 minutes after I put it in. The consistency of the paint was not to my liking (straight of the tube with water), like my other colors were from my previous painting that I just completed. So I decided to just remove it. Just like that.  (And I cleaned it out a bit better so now there's just a blue stain, not paint.) 

I put it on my blotter paper so that I could at least use it in collage at a later time; no waste then. 
But you know what was really interesting? 

The Winsor Blue wasn't the only color I had laid out. I also had Winsor Orange and Yellow Ochre, which I had used in my previous painting. But the colors didn't mix well (it's true that when you mix complementary colors, it looks like mud). Nothing mixed well. It just looked uninspiring, to say the least. 

But as I was removing the Winsor Blue, I had a glimpse of the Winsor Orange and Yellow Ochre, and thought, maybe I could work with those two colors and work with a couple of others besides and see how it goes.

In other words, as I was removing myself from this creative False Start, I had another idea for the Start that I actually decided to run with. It's often when we are exiting from something that disappoints, and might even tick us off that we can reveal our truer path of creativity. 

That might just actually work out! 

I did start a new painting, using the Yellow Ochre as a start. So far, so good. 

Have you had a False Start recently? Did you find another truer path in the withdrawal process? 
If so, I'd love to hear about it! 

In the meanwhile, I'm happily applying my paint, with ideas in my mind of where I want it to go. 
And you know what? I'm okay with whatever happens. 

I'm listening and painting step by step; I'm honoring Who I Am as an Artist as I do. 
When you take the time daily to Honor Who You Are in whatever Life Dimension calls out to you, you are nurturing the core of your being and saying YES. 

You Deserve That. 
Enjoy. 

Copyright 2014 by Dawn Herring