Reinspired by surprise

I just wasn't feeling it. I had several canvases on the go in various stages of completion and couldn't see where to go next on any one of them. I'd loosened myself up on some practice boards, putting down random marks but all that I touched seemed to only get worse. Some days are like that. I sat down frustrated, looking vainly around the room for something to catch my attention, but I was deep in the doldrums and couldn't see how to move anything on.

At times like this, I often look to music to inspire me, usually jazz. But as I skipped through tracks in playlists, I could see that this wasn't going to work today. I felt fidgety, like I'd heard it all before and didn't have the patience to go hunting for something new.

I try to avoid too much social media while in my precious studio time, but with nothing else to do and needing a distraction, I scrolled through my Facebook feed. One of the first posts I came across was by a talented young fiddle player that I follow, Owen Kennedy, the son of a high school friend. He shared a video of the Young Tradition Touring Group playing a medley of traditional inspired folk tunes, and from the harpists' first plucks (is that the right technical term?), I was away. Watching the faces of the young people in the Zoom call video, I could see they were feeling every note and in love with their art in a way that I well recognized.

I listened to it twice before I realized that this was exactly what I needed to be painting to on this day. My mind was filled with the golden light of an autumn day from my years in Vermont, filtered through leaves of crimson and fiery rust. This mingled with fresh memories of a September surf with my family, sunlight bouncing off the dunes and water while salt stung my lips with cold and crystalline spikes.

I looked around the studio to see what I might paint on. I needed not to get hung up on the minutiae of what mark to add to what piece. I needed to fling paint on and go with the music that I was feeling. This couldn't be a small practice board, but I had no large paper and only one large blank canvas left that I'd been saving for a more 'serious' and considered piece. It would have to be that one. I could always paint over whatever mess I would likely make of things in my gusto

Earbuds in, I set to work. Luckily, the video had over six minutes of music, so I only had to concern myself with finding the 'repeat' button a handful of times. I scribbled on pencil lines as I thought of dunes and autumn trees, followed by black paint marks in flowing and organic shapes. A simple cadmium yellow for the golden sunlight and Prussian blue for the sea, lots of white for all the light I could see in my mind and feel in the music. I flicked them on and worked them together to the music and in four play-throughs of the medley, I was done, and so, stepping back to consider my work, was the painting.

What an amazing power music has to change my mood like a switch, and to inspire my brain and soul to an entirely different plane. Thank you Owen and Young Tradition!