30 minute study

So, as usual, January has been a tough month for me to get back into my painting.  I take so much time off during December, that I honestly start to doubt myself in January, and there's always a big scary learning curve to get back into my rhythm.  Thank goodness that I do my 30 minute studies!  I turned this one into a painting called "Letting Go..." because that's literally what I had to do, to finally get past the ugly teenage stage.  I just had to "let go" and let whatever happens, be OK.  I’ll post it later on, after I’m done judging it.  What do you do to break though your blocks?  One thing that I do is promise myself that I will paint for only one hour.  It’s hard to even go to my studio, when the artist’s block is in full force.  I even set a timer to make sure that I stay in my studio for that hour.  Usually, once I start painting, the fear goes away, and I get involved in a painting, and before I know it, my husband is home wondering what’s for supper. 



5 minute warm up

Lots of times, I do little 5x 7’s to just get my brush wet, and to loosen up.  One of my students, Anne, reminded me of a lesson that I taught last year- A simple landscape that is a great warm up exercise.  I do these in only 5 minutes!  It’s posted on the left.  If anyone is interested, I'll be featuring these on my website, http://www.karenknutson.com/ for only $25.  Hope this has been helpful to those artists out there that have the same anxiety as me, with the artist’s block.  Just go to your studio and paint for an hour.  Bet you can’t just stay there for only an hour…..