The squeeze and release of making a painting
I admit I am a bit obsessed with how many things in life seem to follow a squeeze and release process pattern, rather than a steady flow. I wrote about this in my Creativity Coaching book where I note how other artists and creatives talk about giving birth to a painting (like labour contractions), or a feeling of emptiness that follows a period of full productivity, or how creativity pumps through their body as the blood vessels squeeze and release. In this way creativity is a natural process and can’t be forced.
I developed this model about 6 years ago now, in readiness for the book being published, but as I have immersed myself in my own painting in the last few years, it has become clear that I need to apply this understanding to my own process. So here goes:
Squeeze: After having an initial idea for a painting or body of work, I work pretty quickly and with quite a lot of focus.
Release: And then, unless the work is finished, there is a letting go. I leave what I have started and in the past I would get quite annoyed as I lost connection with my idea or went “off it” somehow. This release might last days or even months. At some point in the letting go, other ideas, insights, or ways forward for the work, come into my mind and…
Squeeze: another frantic phase that might see me obliterating the image or using paint stripper to simplify things or turning the painting on its side to expose something else. At some point I start to get annoyed or frustrated…rarely pleased unless I have seen some patterns emerging that I want to keep. At this point, I know it’s probably time to let go again…
Release: the painting might need to stand and be looked at every day or perhaps put away for weeks or months. There seems to need to be a period of rest needed (a bit like me). It is rare for me to actually produce what I originally intended. For many years I was upset by this but now know that I can do both and often the curveball/random approach usually works out better.
This process might continue for some time, but eventually, there is a decision to finish the painting or recycle it somehow…
Squeeze: It might be just a few tweaks to finish the painting or a full-on push, like the final contraction of birth! Or the squeeze might be a knife or saw to the painting and although this doesn’t happen often, I know that creation and destruction go hand in hand and that’s ok!
I know that sounds a bit weird or perhaps familiar to some painters, but embracing this natural pattern has helped me so much in recent years and has helped my work develop much further. I also wanted you to see inside my process a little more and know that if you ask me something like “how did you paint that tree?” my silence might be due to there really not being a straightforward answer 😊
The featured painting below (Kulato) was created in this way and here is a diagram of the model if you are interested: |
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