Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Don't Dillydally, Dauntless: Just Be Idle

"Scene Unseen XX" by Jim Carpenter, Mixed Media on Board, 16 x 20

"I am struck by how the phrase 'Study to be Quiet' expresses the paradox of idling, which is that you have to work at being idle." - Tom Hodgkinson

I'm Not Dillydallying. I'm Getting It Done Without Working.

This is day 10 of the 30 day challenge and I'm on painting #9.  Some of you may recognize the reference in the title of my blogpost. The line "Don't dillydally Dauntless" is a favorite alliteration of mine uttered by the stern but "sensitive" mother-Queen in the musical comedy Once Upon A Mattress. It's also appropriate here because the painting above is one I've been dillydallying over for a while - just as I have over several other paintings I've put forward in the challenge. In fact, I am using this challenge to stop dillydallying and finish - or transform - or dismiss entirely - all of the paintings I have lying around in my painting-Limbo. Oddly enough, it is the call to be idle that is allowing me to finish up what I could not do otherwise.

This gentle shift in point of view - of seeing the painting as something I love to do rather that seeing it as a job - something it is not now and never really has been, except when I thought it might be - is what is allowing me to be free to paint as I wish. It is my idle time - my time to relax and enjoy and be inspired. 

Between the book, "How to Be Idle" by Tom Hodgkinson, and the Challenge from Leslie Saeta, and the 700 other artists painting along in the challenge - it is easy to be inspired and encouraged and idle even when being challenged. 

8 comments:

  1. Nice post...so honest!!!
    Good luck tomorrow.

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    1. Thank you, Sue. For the luck and for the comment!

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  2. I can get lost in the gorgeous blues in this painting. Warm and cool colors are vibrating beautifully here.
    Wish I could learn to be idle. Not easy. if I sit for a second I will start doodling.

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    1. Julie! Thanks for your comment on the painting. I think that Hodgkinson would encourage doodling - would say that doodling is being idle - like daydreaming. Taking time to observe and enjoy the world around us, to do what we love - his book is really a statement about not being driven by "work" - especially work that is not enjoyable.

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  3. I had planned on being idle last night... but it just didn't happen. I ended up working. Maybe tonight... Love the texture in the foreground, the distant shore, and the luscious blue so deep.

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    1. I'm really getting into this idle thing - it seems to give me new freedom.

      I'm so glad that you like this painting... and the blue! :-)

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  4. I am enjoying your paintings and I love your comments. Words I need to hear!
    Thank you!

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