Mount Olympus (4″ x 6″ Acrylic on Birch Panel)
Some days I wonder if all my art (and life!) experimentation will coalesce into something cohesive. I wonder if I will say my primary job is “artist” and especially “hiking and travelling artist” and whether I would crack or thrive. I hope things I make will bring value to people’s lives.
Seth Godin talks about “the dip” – pushing through the long space of mediocrity before mastery. I feel squarely in the middle of it.
(And I feel very grateful for everyone who has supported me emotionally and financially on the path so far!)
When I look at paintings I love, I start asking myself what is it that strikes me? I love Eric Merrell’s creative use of colour, and the strong graphic shapes of Billy Schenck. I love the light-filled sketches James Gurney and Nathan Fowkes and Mike Hernandez make on location, and I’m in awe of the subtle hue shifts that Clyde Aspevig pulls off.
I want to paint like all of them. And one day I might figure out how to paint like me.
When I look at my own work, I can start to see little glimmers of a direction forming. I think things are coming together. It’s slow, making artistic progress in the margins of the day job, but I think it is happening.
Carolyn Lord, in a fantastic podcast, said “To be an artist is to be on a spiritual path because you don’t see the evidence – but you have to have the faith that you are putting things forward and it’s going to come together”. I love that.
And I guess that’s the great mystery that keeps us moving forward – we want to see if all of our dreams will come true by the time we approach the door to the other side.
Sophie
Two Hoots Creative 
I really like this painting, especially the shadows on the slopes. Also, thank you for sharing the other artists’ work – right up my street. 🙂
Glad you liked it and the other artists’ work! It’s neat to look at our influences in aggregate, isn’t it? Although it can be dangerous – I listened to a podcast where an art teacher said “you look at these artists you admire, and skim the cream of their work, and collect it all in a folder – remember they have done not-so-good work too, and if I asked this whole class to submit their best piece, we’d have a pretty amazing exhibit too”. Words to remember! 🙂