Painting Stages – from YIKES to YES :) My Biggest Painting So Far

October 8, 2016 katie berggren

Every time I create a painting, I re-teach myself how to paint… It’s true. Call it lack of memory or constantly re-inventing, but each painting is a new experience that requires an open heart and mind.

And each painting (especially the larger ones) also brings predictable stages and feelings. Within the creation of a painting there are several stages of excitement and possibility, several stages of pure adoration and bliss, and there is even a stage of “how am I going to DO THIS???” It’s this latter stage that scares me, and I often have to say to myself “I’ve done this over 800 times, I can do it again, just hang on…”

Elizabeth Gilbert, in her awesome book Big Magic, talks about this ~ and I was SO excited to hear it (audiobook while painting, of course). Liz talks about how important it is to recognize the stages (“Oh that’s right, this is the stage where I begin to think I will never finish this piece, I suck, and someday everyone will realize that I don’t know what I’m doing…”) and to just go with the stages, let them flow and KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

The amazing thing? When I keep moving forward, I AM always able to pull through to the other side, and end up LOVING my painting. I can actually FEEL the change, it is palpable: the moment I cross over from “YIKES, what am I doing?” to “ah YES, here we are.”.

A phrase I use to keep myself positive as I work through the jungle of paint blobs and skin tones, strands of hair and masses of messy paintbrushes is: “Love & Layers”. And this phrase gets me through because every painting really just needs LOVE & LAYERS. And lots of TIME

I’ve just recently hit the sweet spot with my largest painting so far ~ she is 5×5 feet. Still a fair amount of work (and layers!) to do, but I’ve passed that “I don’t know what I’m doing” stage, and that is a lovely feeling.

Here are some photos for you. Please note: bad photography courtesy of my sons and inappropriate lighting

Largest Blank Canvas my Studio Has Ever Seen:

Painting in Process, right before the “Oh Yikes” stage:

Painting during the “Yikes What Am I Doing?” stage:

Painting after passing the “Yikes What Am I Doing?” stage:

My biggest painting so far (5×5 feet), and my smallest painting so far (4×4 inches):

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Since the Everyday Connection Collection has completed, I have been focusing on my client’s paintings each week, really giving them my all, and not worrying about creating a new mini piece to share with the public.

I have some really awesome one-of-a-kind original paintings that are available in the Online Studio Shop, though, here are a few of my VERY favorites!! And for a limited time they come with a MATCHING PENDANT FREE!