So as I have previously stated in many of my blog posts, I do not like to paint. This semester I have Laura Duerwald Alexander as a professor and I absolutely love her for my painting class. She really helps me with my techniques and we talk about process over product (which is what art therapy really focuses on). She always tells me to look at what I am going to paint as just shapes. Start with dark and then go to the lightest. I have to say is it way easier said than done. I have basically fought that all semester, not intentionally, but I have finally realized that I have not been listening to what she says.

When I am painting I just want to jump in, and I usually hope that my painting comes out somewhat decent. I cannot just look at a composition and work an entire painting instead of just one thing at a time. Well I finally stopped thinking. I stopped trying to think of what I “should” be doing and what I want it to look like at the end, and I think I just got my most successful figure painting….ever.

To be honest I don’t know if I will ever be able to paint like this again, or maybe this was my breaking point and it will just go uphill from here, but to me this painting was truly an “ah ha” moment. It not the most beautiful piece but just the process and work I put into it made it my most successful piece I have ever done.