Deleting

That pansy thing (work in progress)
Acrylic on birch panel
5 x 7 inches
Barbara Muir © 2014

Do you have zero emails in your inbox? Neither
do I.  But Alyson Stanfield who writes the Art
Biz blog is that organized.

For artists deleting is huge.  It's major in a
painting, it's huge when selecting references.
Emotionally deleting is about letting go
of self criticism, and of the criticism other
people say or transmit about your art.

Right now because spring has hit our
part of the world, I am in a major delete
mode, trying to clear clutter out of
my house, files, ....and yes the inbox.

Do you throw out paintings? I tend to
paint over the practice ones endlessly,
but I have never actually thrown out
a painting on canvas.  Still I'm intrigued.

I did go through some of my sketchbooks
this week and eliminate every drawing, or
sketch I didn't like.  Those went into
the recycle bin.  My goal was to make my
sketchbooks thinner on the bookshelf, but
also to only save work I'm proud of.

File, recycle, reuse, -- move it.  This
is the theme this week, and as a good
friend of mine knows, this mood is rare,
and must be harnessed when it's ready
to race.  

The painting tonight is a work in progress
of a small still life with the gazillions of
pansies in pots around my house.  They
beg to be deadheaded (flower deleting),
and painted.  Essential.

Have a clearing-the-path-for-the-new day.