Do you paint every day or more sporadically?

Caring for the Creative Spirit Other Creativity Stuff
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Just a general chit-chat here…

I have always been a very ‘all or nothing’ sort of person. I’m female so according to conventional wisdom I should be good at multi-tasking - but I’m not - and actually have never been like that. I get very focused on one project at a time and it’s the same with painting. When I’m in ‘painting mode’ I like to have no distractions and a clear(ish) mind. I find it difficult to focus on painting if I have a lot of other things to think about. So I tend to spend time ‘clearing the decks’ of other tasks, then I will spend weeks at a time painting all day, every day. Then when things start to build up, I’ll take a break from painting again.
Is anyone else like this? I think it’s partly because I like (if possible) to finish a painting in one sitting. My other issue is that I have 3 kids so I have to plan my time around them.

I know artists who are able to divide up their day. They spend, say the morning doing admin or marketing then will spend the afternoon or evening painting.

How do you divide up your time for painting?

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I have so many other interests besides doing flat artwork…designing craft patterns which include everything from needle punch, paper clay, celluclay, wood, soldering, chalkware, embroidery cross stitch and much more. I also love to crochet and have been teaching myself to knit. So doing flat artwork is just one thing that interests me.

I try to not get caught up with deadlines… I did licensing for 3 dimensional art for years and hated the “have to be done by a certain time” scheduling. So I try to avoid ever feeling like I have to create on a schedule…no matter what medium it might be in.

I piddle with whatever I’m in the mood for. I only started doing mixed media 10 months ago…and went 2 months during that time without doing any flat artwork. When I start experimenting with a new medium I usually go all in…when I taught myself how to make my soldered jewelry last year…I soldered and sold 100’s of pieces before I totally burned out on that…and then moved on to something else.

I have no set schedule for anything… I do whatever I’m in the mood for… I spend very little time on social media …I find Facebook so beyond boring. With that being said I do make YouTube videos and have my own website and a couple of blogs. But then again…I’m creating for the fun of it these days…I no longer do Hickety Pickety (my pattern business) as a full time job…and Funked Up Art is merely for giggles and kicks…as I have no clue what I’m doing…I probably shouldn’t even be answering this question because most would view what I do as not painting in the way they view a real artist paints.

Hope you are having a great day creating whatever it might be!

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I used to get all caught up in not meeting deadlines (self imposed), worried that I am never going to be a daily painter… I realize now that priorities are always in flux as things get on the to do list and off again and life’s disappointments and joys take my time away from painting. But it is never far from my heart.

Even the times in between being having time to paint-as I people watch while I wait at doctor’s appointments, I study various eyes or ears across the room. I analyze what I am seeing much more now and it will serve me well the next time I sit down to paint. I take lots of photos, study colors all around me, especially nature. I couldn’t stop doing that if I wanted to.

I eke out paintings slowly but I’m always ‘painting in my mind’. And I learn a lot in the times between and it really shows the next time I pick up a brush. :smiley:

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Thanks, I loved reading this. I wonder how many of us ‘creatives’ have had a go at other things? I ran a ‘paint your own pottery’ mobile business for a while until I realised how unsociable the hours were and that I never had a weekend free!
I also don’t work to deadlines anymore - takes all the fun out of it! And I paint purely for pleasure - and if I sell some work - well I see that as a bonus.
However, I have made money out of being a creative person purely unexpectedly - I do all the painting, decorating and DIY around the house. I see it as a way of saving money. I have learned to be quite good at it. So every time we have moved house (which has been a lot in recent years) we have earned a really decent profit on the sale.
My last big distraction from painting the last few months has been doing exactly this - swapping an oil brush for a decorators one! Now I’m done I have a million ideas for oil painting again.

I hope you have a great day too!

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Sunny I like the ‘painting in my mind’ phrase. I wonder if we all do that?

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I paint everyday and feel itchy if I am unable to paint for a day. I also take two painting classes per week. I sold my business so I could devote my time to oil painting. Only wish I had decided to follow this path a long time ago.

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I paint four or five days a week. I read about painting, art, and composition. I’m always on DPW looking at art. I spent a couple of months this winter just drawing and I didn’t post any of that work here, partly because I was learning by copying old botanical drawings. There are ebbs and flows in my painting schedule. I paint outside the home 4 days of the week.

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Hi! I try to paint a small something every day. If I don’t get to actually painting, I’m always in art mode. Plein air once a week, teaching painting once a week, painting in the studio every day. And when I take a “break” it’s about art - go to galleries, talk nonstop about art (i.e. color mixing, marketing art, shipping paintings, etc). My poor husband.

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I paint almost every day- if I don’t, I’ll be sketching or taking reference photos to work from later. Despite my best efforts to be mature about it, I get quite sulky and whiny if I don’t get the chance to paint for a few days! (I’m sure my parents could tell you all about that…) It gets worse in good weather, when I want to be outside painting en plein air, but I have college research to do, or some other obligation keeping me inside.

And I’m definitely one of those people that is always thinking about art! Whether it’s going to galleries, or talking about marketing, or watching documentaries on art history… I often catch myself staring at things, thinking about how I would compose the painting of it, and what kind of brushwork I’d use. I don’t think I ever really switch out of “art mode.”

I was going to say that I do have hobbies that have nothing to do with art, then I realised… I tend to end up illustrating the books I read, doing music-inspired sketches, drawing the players while watching football… nope, apparently all roads do lead to art for me!

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I like this topic! Sounds like we are all very much alike. :grin:

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I am much like you, not a good multitasker, however I have kept a job through all my years of creating and have suffered creatively as a result though I have avoided experiencing material insecurity, learning to live on a modest budget and balancing creativity with income earning. I see retirement coming and feel that being able to put full focus on painting will change my life dramatically, the ability to really pursue and fully focus on that aspect of who I am seems exciting and affirming to me.

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Your work is really nice!

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Awww…thank you so much Vana! What a great way to end the day for me. A compliment is a great boost.

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I love that you used the term “Painting mode”. My husband uses it all the time on me! He will call me and after asking me a few questions he’ll say: Ok, I see you’re in painting mode. I’ll call you later! Hahaha! But I think it’s because you go to another world when you paint and in that world there’s no laundry or food! But sometimes, I come out of this world… mostly because I trip on the clothes piled on the floor or looses 5 pounds because I forgot to eat all week! It is all or nothing! It takes a few days to clean up this world so we can go back to the other one :slight_smile:

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I try to paint every day but it seldom works out to be that. I work 12 hour shifts in my regular job but I recently started getting up an hour early on work days so I can get some art time in. It seems to put me in a better place mentally. If I don’t actively paint, I’m often varnishing, gessoing, researching, etc. And, like many of you, even when I dont have a brush in my hand, I’m painting in my mind. Constantly looking at light and color out in the world, taking reference photos, etc. So much of painting is in the seeing so I feel like I have to constantly train my brain to actively see.

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This is a very interesting topic ! How we live our artistic day? How we manage to live this passion ?

Teaching art, mainly to adults, I am happy when my students catch this creative virus and begin to see as painters around them and think about their painting throughout their busy day even when falling asleep. It changes their life, opens their eyes and helps some of them to go throught difficult times. I think what matters is to be in the “art mode”, no matter if we paint an oil « masterpiece », a quick watercolor sketch or doing a decorative work at home. I wish everyone to be in “art mode”, no matter what expression we choose, visual art, music, writing, … the world would be much better around us.

To come back to this topic and as for me, I am thinking «painting» all day long like all you do. We are all in the same boat and terribly need to express ourselves this way. Aside my demos as art teacher, I make small sketches every day because it is always possible to find a few minutes to scribble at least, and I paint as often as I can, between classes, on weekends, switching between small and larger oil paintings and watercolors. If I could not take a pencil during the day I feel really bad like missing an important thing. This is what I tell to my students, try to sketch every day, at least a few minutes, no matter the subject. But I do not care any more of production, goals… At the beginning when I registered on this site I set myself the goal of doing a small finished painting every day to be a true daily painter. And posting, posting posting, as often as possible. But very quickly I understood that I cannot do so and I was feeling upset about it for a while. Thinking further, I understood that there is no need to impose a daily production of a finished painting because basically for me this is not the meaning of painting, whatever the name we give to it. And who cares about our production if not ourselves ? Finally daily sketching, painting, decorating, looking for inspiration, photographing, going to exhibitions, looking on art on web, learning, even doubting and stopping for a while, whatever, but persevere, all these things are, at my feeling, the essence of our own artist’s journey.

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I started painting every day at least 6 days a week for the past 2 years. I used to think I needed at least 3 hours to paint, but after listening to some podcast interviews with some artists I realized that a 1/2 hour or an hour was enough time to get some painting done. But mostly I paint 3 to 6 hours a day.

The last 2 weeks when I was attending to all the details of getting ready for my first solo show I didn’t get to paint. By the time my reception was over my skin was crawling from my need to PAINT! HA!

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Good luck in your solo show, Andrea!

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