Establishing a Daily Practice - A Daily Dose

I frequently tell my students that to practice singing for 5 minutes everyday is more effective than to practice for 3 hours once a week. First of all, the voice is a muscle - it is prone to over-training and damage if not warmed up, used appropriately, and strengthened. Similar to this, Kateri Ewig recommends using her short watercolor exercises in "Watercolor is for Everyone" to help establish a daily practice.

With a time consuming job, husband and three young children at home that need a lot of love and attention, I was nervous about whether or not doing something like this would be too selfish. Would to pros outweigh the cons? Would I have to wait until right before bed to do anything for myself? As it turned out, the exercises are perfect for "lightning" sessions of painting. My kids love to do arts and crafts as well, so I figured if I just set them up to do a little painting, we would all be together and could focus on our own individual art while still feeling connected. 

Mindfulness, personal expression, and gratitude are at the heart of the exercises in this book. Some exercises have been cathartic, whereas others have been frustrating or felt useless. However, the simple act of loading up the brush with water and paint and slopping it on the page has consistently felt good. So far, I have completed about half of the exercises in the book. 

The first project was about setting up a space for painting and having meaningful items that you find beautiful and inspiring. The second, about moving paint around the page...

Second project... I hated. This looked like nothing. It felt like nothing. I didn't have enough water, enough paint, enough creativity. It felt very discouraging and wasn't really fun. 

The fourth project called "Without a Plan" focused on drawing inspiration from things around us - Nature, art, poetry, music, quotes. I found a poem by Wendell Berry and was inspired to paint the following picture series. I still don't particularly like the paintings I did for this project, but I valued the time I had to sit with that poem and process what it meant to me visually. 

"When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
Wendell Barry

There were more color work, meditative exercises in the book that I still wasn't fully connecting with. It felt good to paint and have a practice of creativity, but I can't quite separate myself from wanting to have something to show for that time afterwards. 

Then, there was a beautiful angel painting exercise. I was to set my intention on one specific person, do a pencil squiggle, and fill in the spaces letting the paint mix and touch. Then, add wings and a crown/halo. This was meaningful to me and despite the angels turning out in no way how I intended, they were special to me because I was thinking of special-to-me-people. 

My mother

A colleague with a beautiful heart

A wonderful friend whom I miss dearly

Over this last few weeks I have found that I like the daily practice and physical act of painting and creativity - taking a blank piece of paper and putting something on it with ownership. This painting comes from me! But the projects that have meaning or create some sense of realism are the ones that not only feel meditative, but satisfying at the end of my session.

Here is one called "Pondscape." After completing this one, my oldest boy (4yo) came over to me and said, "Wow. Mama, this looks like the ocean. [proceeds to kiss the picture]. Thank you for drawing the things that I love." 

So is it worth is to establish a daily practice? Is it worth it to sit for the sake of sitting rather than for the sake of creating a satisfactory product? 

So far - I would say, absolutely!

The "intuitive" painting exploration has actually given me more physical learning about watercolor. In "Pondscape," I can see that the colors are blending more than any painting above. Although I would prefer to learn the techniques of watercolor so I can employ them outright, I am enjoying the process of learning by doing. 

One added benefit to establishing a daily practice is that my children see me practicing my creativity. They see me learning and growing. They are too young to realize I'm trying something new, but I hope one day they will recognize what I was doing and feel open to trying new things they might not be great at because they saw my example. For now, they are exploring their own artistic outlets and seeing their evolution since I began this journey has also been remarkable. From scribbles, to coloring in the lines, to establishing their own symbols. I am so impressed and grateful for this mode of connection with my boys. 

<3 Rachel

"Dada"