Life as an artist

[Michael Fournier]

Well, to those in this Forum who just do portraits, this may not apply (or maybe it does), but here is my day fighting an artist block.

I have 20 or so paintings to do for a show coming up and I have 3 done. I have 3 started and the rest I have no idea of what I will paint. Today I stretched and gessoed canvas. But what to paint next? I know the gallery owner wants sales; I try not to think about what sells as I plan paintings, but if you want to sell, you can't always paint what you like. Usually I have many ideas but today I'm stumped. It's still early, so I walk to the coffee shop and bakery down the road. As I walk, I think about the canvases stacked by my easel and the show. But not long after I hit the street I'm lost in the day.
I get to the coffee shop order my usual cappuccino and Danish. As I make my way back, I can't wait to start painting.

I get home, take out my sketchbook and there I find a few figure studies that give me a few more ideas. Then I set up my easel. I can't usually just jump into a painting, so I start with one that I started already, that just needs a few touches. I start mixing paint, and as I work I get into a flow. Now I set the early painting aside, put a small 9x12 canvas on the easel and start to paint a new painting.

It's not done yet, but now I have 4 paintings started and I am working. Well, this is how I beat my artist block today. I needed to stop thinking about the show so I took a walk. Later I will finish these two paintings, but I will start another before I finish the first ones. Since I have a hard time starting a painting session jumping right into a blank canvas, I always want something on the previous one left to do to - kind of to give me a start. It works for me.

Do you get artist block? What kinds of things do you do to get past it?