Swimmers and Artists Block

oil painting of girl swimmers, girl power
Girl Power 36x36" oil
This time of year is when I get in the studio and paint A LOT.
Its the season of hunkering - and for me that means getting to hunker in the studio and work on big paintings.
This year I gave my self a deadline to finish up a bunch of "swimmers" - I've been working hard but missed my deadline - well to be clear - I didn't paint as many as I wanted to by the end of last month but I did paint several and I like them very much.

Then it happened... ARTIST BLOCK.  Ugh.  seriously, NOW?  nooooo NOW is when I need to be painting!!

SO what do you do when a block happens?
Here is what I did.....

 - I whined.  I whined to my husband, I whined to my best friend, I whined to my dogs.
- I spent a good 3 days binge watching Netflix (the Crown, Abstract, The Frontier, Broadchurch .....)
- I spent waaaaaay to much time looking at art on pinterest and instagram (which only made me more blocked and confused)
- I made chicken soup from scratch and toll house cookies TWICE.

It was NOT productive (art wise - the soup and cookies were great) BUT part of the process
Here is what else I did....

-I kept going to the studio
-I played with other mediums a bit and other subject matters
-I wrote down my feelings about my art and where I want it to go
-I cleaned and cleared my studio.  Made empty space to let new art breathe.
-I began meditating again
-I turned up the music and turned off the noise (no more looking at other peoples art)
-I kept painting

and then I painted this
painting of a swimmer, green, contemporary art, figurative art
24"x30" oil
and just like that I feel inspired again and have direction and clarity.
Still a swimmer but something new is happening and it excites me
painting of a swimmer, plastic plate palettes, cheap art supplies, figurative art


Unblocked painting wise but I cannot come up with a title
OR decide what to do with this blog.
But for now I will just keep on painting...


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New Swimmer (the block breaker)

Happy Weekend

beach rocks, mandala
nfdp

The weekend is here and I for one am very very happy about that.
(BIG game on sunday.  BIG GAME.)

This year I have really been trying to schedule in my studio time, teaching, planning time into the week - ya know, like a "real job" (insert eye roll here)
Being an artist who works for herself it was normal to me to have loose studio hours during the week and get a lot done on the weekends when my husband was home to watch the kids and dogs.

That was great BEFORE - ya know before my boys got so big that 2 out of the 3 have full beards and lives of their own and even the puppy is grown up.  *sigh*

So this year I am trying it out - leaving the house with a lunch and heading to the studio to put in the work.   Most of being a professional artist is showing up and so I'm showing up, putting in the time and so far I'm loving it.


Girl Power, swimmer series, Debbie Miller

painting of girl swimmers, bathing caps, figurative art
February is here and it is time to paint the swimmers!
My studio is cleaned up and organized...
Ok not totally but mostly.  The painting area is at least.

The next week is set aside to finish up about 14 pretty big paintings in my swimmer series.
This one; "Girl Power" is the first and since I painted it last month I thought that was a fitting name.

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