The desire to paint a flower still life has been in the back of my mind for awhile. I had a vision for how I thought it would turn out.  After getting some tulips from my sweet husband it inspired me to get started. I began these 3 paintings below – sunflowers, peonies and tulips. They started with good intentions and vision but fell flat on execution for me. I was getting so frustrated and I think it shows in the tight, unnatural feeling I got from this work so, I let them sit for a few days.

I picked up the sunflower painting and added pattern, deeper colors and was feeling better about it.  I slept on it and the next day I realized it just didn’t feel right and I asked myself – would I hang this art proudly in my home? The answer was no. It didn’t feel like me. At that moment, I reminded myself of something that I had read recently … paint like you. I needed to forget about what I wanted it to be, stop comparing my work to other still life art on Pinterest and just paint like me.

So, I got to work covering up the sunflower still life and this happened instead!

I love looking at the collage and seeing that I could have stopped at frame 5 or 6 or 8 and be really happy with it. Stopping before I “go to far” is something I continue to work towards feeling more confident about. Taking many pictures as I work is helping me see when to let go, call it done and remember to just paint like me.

I encourage you to do things your way too! It is truly freeing to give yourself permission to just be you.