Being present when I paint is about allowing thoughts that rise up from my subconscious, recognizing that I'm thinking about them, then letting go of those thoughts as I continue to paint. Rather than ignoring the thoughts or getting stuck in the thoughts, I want to watch them float by as I paint and maintain my focus on paint thickness and paint color and brushstrokes. Being present means aware of your thoughts but not suffering because of them.
In today's practice I worked on color mixings and finding the colors to match my original photo. My sta-wet palette is very wet so my paint is very thin. I need to work out how to get the right consistency as I add more paint layers.
As part of #20For20ArtChallenge2022, I am reading from The Power of Daily Practice: How Creative and Performing Artists (and Everyone Else) Can Finally Meet Their Goals by Eric Maisel, PhD. Part I of the book covers 20 Elements of Practice. In this blog post series 20For20, I write about one Element every day and reflect on how to incorporate the Element into my daily painting practice.