Emotional Painting

I feel things deeply, so when I feel something, I feel it to my core. If I get very sad or depressed I don’t necessarily know what I want to paint but I still often feel drawn to the brush or a pen and paper. I may slash across the canvas with my brush, wildly flitting my paint here and there, smearing colors together and practically stabbing the canvas in my emotional state, my tears only add to the depth of the painting. Or I might make something I’m familiar with like a sunset or flowers that require me to zone in a focus more.

These paintings invariably end up different than what I normally paint, the passion of emotions that goes into them makes it so. Often if someone comes into my studio they will be drawn to one of these pieces and like it as much or more than more other work, while I may find it ugly or hard to look at, perhaps because of the emotions I was feeling at the time I made the painting. But one of the great things I get out of emotional painting is the freedom.

So often I am trying to make a certain type of painting or repainting an aspect that I didn’t like or that someone harshly critiqued. But in an emotional storm I just do what I want, it most definitely won’t be perfect, which does bother me, but it will mine, fully out of my heart and soul, so even if the flower is lopsided or the horizon line on the sunset isn’t straight, I just have to remember to slow down my mind so I can remind myself it is exactly the way it is meant to be. Perfectly imperfect.