In this post, we are going to talk about how important it is to let go of any preconceived notion of how to paint flowers and paint them.

I painted these flowers a while back and wow I don’t think I appreciated them as much as I do now. I’ve got one rose surrounded by other flowers in a pink vase. With the color and different flowers in my heart, I loosely painted the photo on my Pinterest board. Yes, the blue was me taking my hand and smudging out the little red flowers that didn’t work. So glad I found this journal painting! Isn’t it great when you are inspired by your own art!

Stop keeping yourself from your best work

There is no right way to paint a flower. Yet we paint like there is. Why do we insist on critiquing our work? Probably the biggest reason keeping us from our best work is that we are terrible judgers of our work. I go back and forth with my work, about to slip into this phase but I realize how free I feel as I’m journaling.

There’s an artist who posted her journal page on Instagram. She captioned her post with the following words. The bird shouldn’t be in the middle because that’s breaking the art rules. She went on to say that she fixed her painting.

I liked her painting! I thought it was beautiful! I wasn’t thinking about the art rules. It was until I read the caption that I understood. There is no right way to paint!

Just Paint

I’ve been seeing students with confidence. Kids always paint with confidence. I always ask them about their ideas so I can learn. They always tell me, “I don’t know I just painted.”

Students just pick up the paint brush and paint. Sure, I set out supplies and go over the rules. Oh but Ana didn’t want to use her fingers. She wanted a brush!

With Love, Mireya