Letting Go
by rebeccaMpells
Yesterday, I set out to paint a small abstract as a loosening up exercise. The aim was to let go of anything representational but within minutes of starting I began to see a landscape emerge – trees, a shoreline, however vague and probably not what someone else would have seen at all. At this point I started to follow the direction I thought the painting was leading me, believing it was supposed to be this way. As a result, I forced the image to materialise into something vaguely resembling an alpine lake landscape and in so doing, deprived it of it’s true potential as an abstract painting.
We are surrounded by a world full of names, categories, labels, titles and tags. We love to name – it helps us to locate, formulate and store information. It helps us to feel in control of an increasingly complex environment. We have become so adept at this method of ordering, that we do it unconsciously, habitually and whilst it is of great assistance in a technical world it can have the opposite effect when used in situations which need to evolve naturally.
Naming of a person or situation leads to unrealistic expectations – whole scenarios can be played out in our minds which bear little resemblance to reality. We become disillusioned, angry and blame others for not fulfilling our dreams. We can never know early on in our work, friendship or relationship what kind of experience we will have together. If we name a romance too early we demand reciprocation, we force a reward – like fruit grown out of season it lacks longevity – we deny the relationship the chance to flourish and bear fruit as a natural progression.
By naming too soon we close off possibilities of something finding it’s own level, we reject it’s true potential, it’s own representation and deny ourselves of the gift it may have to offer. If we can be brave enough to let go of the confining boundaries of naming, then by so doing just maybe we will experiencing something beautiful.
Labeling people is terrible, but, in fact, it is what many do: people prefer to identify and label themselves by what they eat, by what they suffer from, by what type of gender they have, by what they wear, obviously by job or occupation. We are very complex with lots of features and roles to take on in different life situations.
I love representative art. It’s probably because I can draw anything very effortlessly and it feels silly not to do so. I find that there is a lot of abstract art which is quite often not even art by its truest meaning. Abstract art takes the same mastery that representational art. It is just so that Internet is flooded with some kind of strange images.
What type of medium are you using? Is that acrylic or oils? Having an idea in art is great, I also like how you said you allowed the painting to lead you. There is a moment with any painting when it becomes the guide and it starts to tell what to do.
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Thanks for your thoughts. This was done in oils. I think when we find something easy that is the time when perhaps we should be brave and let ourselves go. Otherwise we experience the same thing – and produce the same results over and over and deny ourselves the delight of discovering something new. This is the danger when we name or label to early on as I did with this painting – we try to make it fit a pre-conceived mould. I havn’t tried abstract before and this certainly is not the best example! But I wish to loosen up my representational work (and perhaps myself in general) and I felt this might be a good way to experiment.
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i just saw colorful shapes
but nice to know
what they represented,
at that moment 🙂
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Colourful shapes is good 🙂
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I like your message, love your painting, a beautiful abstract!
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Thank you!
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I am in synch with your thoughts. When I am doing an abstract I find that if I begin to visualize an end result too soon (a visual naming or marker if you will) I tend to force things and since I am not that technically proficient not only does the forcing seem to become evident (either technically or compositionally) but also I seem to lose the organic nature of what my subconscious is trying to express, (which is pretty much all I have going for me, 😉 So it’s a struggle I sometimes win and sometimes lose.
But you know, listening to where the painting is trying to go can be OK too, Sometimes it might trap you but sometimes it might open a new door. Or something like that.
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Hi Joe. I think you have been able to articulate some of what I was trying to say much more eloquently – “I seem to loose the organic nature of what my subconscious is trying to express” I read somewhere recently that thinking and creating are separate activities and should not be engaged at the same time! Thanks for taking time to read and comment 🙂
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This is beautiful.
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Thank you 🙂
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Love the lesson!! I find so many times life imitating art…or at least the way we approach them both. Thanks for wisdom!
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Happy you enjoyed it Lorrie. Hope it didn’t sound too school-teacher-ish!
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😊Absolutely not! Hope the rest of your week is awesome!
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Love this post, stretched my imagination and gave me inspiration…Jeanne Marie
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Thank you Jeanne !
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Perhaps if we had not named us Love
if we had just let emotions run free
we’d still be snuggled side-by-side
beneath the magic of you and me.
No expectations, no promises
just the touch of wanting hands
needs flowing and unbroken
uncrippled by Love’s demands.
Perhaps if we had not named us Love.
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Beautiful words – and an echo of my thoughts on more than one occasion only usually too late! Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for inspiring!
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[…] Inspired by https://rebeccapells.com/2017/03/01/letting-go/ […]
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