What if …

What if everything is unfolding just the way it’s supposed to unfold?

What if you took an hour, or just five minutes, to simply sit instead of rushing around?

What if the birds got it right and we really can sing for joy at first light?

This painting took over a year to complete
because I didn't like what I saw … until it
rested. After taking it out of sequestration,
it looked much better, and I could finish
the painting. We don't always like our works 
in progress.

Okay. What if the night owls got it right and those birds aren’t singing for joy, they’re raging against the sun for waking them up?

What if it doesn’t really matter?

What if everything matters?

What if no one else cares? What if it’s up to us to care, or to not care?

What if we get to decide what life means, what specific incidents mean, and what we want to do (or not do) with the meaning we assign to them?

What if it really is up to us to make these decisions?

Are we ready to assign positive meanings to our actions and their results?

What if just because I didn’t get the results I want immediately, I get them later instead?

What if there is a time delay that I forgot to factor into my “I want it now” equation?

What if that dab of paint I just added to my painting looks all wrong now, but leads to another and another and another dab that ultimately makes this painting my best one yet?

What if we’re taking score too soon?

What if we can’t quite see the whole picture and we need more information?

People are surprised when I tell them that I don’t know what my painting will look like when it’s finished. Heck! If I knew at the beginning of the painting what the result would be, there would be no magic in the painting and no reason to paint!

I don’t want to know with absolute certainty what the painting will look like when it’s finished.

What if all we need to do is trust in the process and in our ability to reach an end, a point of completion?

And what if that point of completion morphs into a new question or better yet, a new beginning point for our next painting?

What if we looked at all of life, and every moment in it, as a point of possibility? What if even the “bad times” really do have silver linings, and if we look for them, they will find us?

"It is better to believe than to disbelieve; in so doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility." ~ Albert Einstein

What if the choice really is that simple, and what if it’s ours to make in every moment?

Two professional oil painters recently told me that they are afraid of painting with watercolor. They said that it is too unpredictable and unforgiving. I have heard this before.

In fact, I used to believe that too. I had NO intention of even trying watercolor before moving into a very small apartment in Honolulu made it advisable (fumes from oil paints can be deadly).

Now I know watercolor can be magical & free as well as domesticated, and occasionally quiet.

Watercolor has many facets and can be used differently to suit your moods.

My favorite method is to embrace the mystery of painting as a form of meditation and insight.

I enjoy the challenge of starting fast with a loose idea. Then applying texture and paint to create an underpainting (my Hide-N-Seek method).

Later, when all the texture has been removed, I paint slowly, taking my time to find my original idea (the Seeking part of Hide-N-Seek).

It is a good idea to have several paintings going so that when you get “stuck” on one, you can work on another.

Each painting has the potential to teach us something new about art and about life.

When we quietly tiptoe into our paintings, we have the opportunity to watch magic happen as the world expands through our creation.

When painting slowly, stop periodically to really look at the painting in progress. In this way you can see what is needed and the painting process becomes a meditation.

Sometimes paintings happen quickly. Stunning paintings, filled with charged color and fluid movement can happen in one sitting.

There truly are as many ways to paint, as there are people.

If you want to find your own way with watercolor, please email me. Teaching and helping others to expand their artistic vision is one of my favorite things to do.

Not yet complete, here you see that I am finding more and more trees in this Aspen Grove in Autumn. This painting was started in the Hide-N-Seek Class I taught in Denver earlier in October, 2014. Ask me how you can arrange to have me teach a class in your neck of the woods!

Keep Your Eye on the PrizeWhen I began to return to my artistic roots, I started with drawing. I used colored pencils to describe my inner world, and that of others (with their permission).

This image is an example of one of those drawings; I called them Energy Essence Portraits. They were personal mandalas that “spoke” to me as I drew. I kept a notebook at my side & recorded words that popped into my head while I drew.

In the beginning, I needed total silence to do these drawings; even music distracted me. This work required my total focus. That is why I would get up at four AM to ensure peace and quiet in the house.

After a year of silent drawing in the wee hours of the morning, my circumstances shifted and necessity conspired with reality to create times when the presence of others while I drew was unavoidable.

Fortunately I had honed my focus by that time and could draw without being distracted by others.

By the time I’d moved to Honolulu in 2000, I realized that my focus had become so strong that I could paint in public. Nowadays I paint at galleries and fairs so people can watch the painting unfold along with me.

Over the years I’ve realized that the more intensely I focus on my painting, the less time I paint at any one time. As a result of focusing so singularly, I am able to accomplish quite a lot in a short amount of time. This allows me to schedule short blocks of time in which to work on a wide variety of projects.

Focus is focus. It doesn’t matter what you focus upon, as long as your attention is aligned with your intention, your focus will be strong and pure.

You can start to hone your focus by setting aside 5–10 minutes at a time, 2–3 times a week, to devote to one task. Choose something you have wanted to do, but haven’t been able to make time for doing. Ideally this task will be one very close to your heart.

Do this task for 5–10 min at a time, 2–3 times a week, for three weeks. I promise you will be amazed at how much you accomplish in those 30–90 minutes of time. Your new-found ability to focus with intention on almost anything will sneak up on you.

The really good news is that focus, once honed, follows you from task to task. Your ability to focus on almost anything is a skill worth learning.

You can read more about focus here: http://dreamheartsmartart.blogspot.ch/