Ninety Percent of Creativity is Showing Up

I have spent time in the last couple of months taking stacks of snapshots from the living room cabinets and running them through a portable scanner.  Many pictures of kids, celebrations, pets and the occasional picture of early career art.  It's been an interesting look back to see where I came from artwise.  My early days after art school were meager, chasing too few illustration jobs at ad agencies and book publishers.  I admit I wasn't ready for prime time.  We were going through another recession at the time and it set the level of difficulty for a free lance artist.  Apparently it would always be hard. And it would require discipline and committment that I wasn't sure I had.

In 1985 I was offered an opportunity painting murals in Olive Garden Restaurants. It was my dream to travel,  and it was my dream to paint. This job had both. The company had only 3 restaurants at the time, but soon they got huge seed money from parent company General Mills, and I had my lucky break. 

But with the upside came the down.  I needed to hand paint a 90 square foot mural every 2 days, 4 to 6 days a week - and often in the opposite end of the country from the previous week.  Hard work and discipline were my only chances at surviving the program schedule.

Creativity doesn't flow at constant speed.  You have good creative days and you have not so good.  But I discovered something that has stayed with me since.  I found to be successful you have to be there when the muse visits.  "There" is normally in the studio with a loaded brush.  In my case, a partially built restaurant.  The set schedule and pressure to succeed made me a better painter.  A similar rule applies to writing or other creative processes.  A scheduled block of work time puts you in the field of opportunity. And the goal of a show or an accomplished body of work can be great inspiration.

Today I decided I need to treat my writing with the same discipline as painting.  I go to work each day because my mind engages when I turn on the studio light.  Only then do I have the opportunity to act on inspiration.  Sometimes it doesnt work but most times at least one good thing happens and it calls me to come back for more.  I'll hope that writing more frequently here does the same.

So set aside a scheduled block of time for making your art or your music or writing that book.  Carve out the work time to realize your inspiration

Blue Highway

I just returned from a trip to Cincinnati OH where Miller Gallery www.millergallery.com is hosting a show of my work along with artist/illustrator Gary Kelley and British sculptor Mark Hall.  The trip north from Orlando got old decades ago.  Nine hundred miles of tedium on Interstate 75 punctuated by schedule-crippling traffic jams, (yes, I'm talking to you, Atlanta).  And yet there are always beautiful places you never seemed to notice and memories to relive. 

Compared to today's interstate sprints in hermetically sealed gps ipod sirius bluetooth and usb equipped SUV's, my childhood family trips from Florida to Kentucky were real adventures.  Only a few segments of I-75 were complete for speed runs between congested 2 lane roads.  And these roads led through every little town along the way.  Cars weren't reliable like today, air conditioning was still for the wealthy, and fast food had not come to the backroads of the south.

While it's all freeway now, this week's trip was hampered by a landslide in the mountains of Tennesseee.  All trafic was sent on a 40 mile detour, a winding two lane moutain road that parallelled a river valley with cool meadows and wonderful fresh smells.  This was the road of my childhood trips. Mostly unchanged and probably wondering where I have been all these years. 

No, I don't miss being carsick from swinging back and forth in the back seat for hours on end, and I have grown to expect the comfort of mediocre food at every interstate exit, but I do occasionally miss the beauty and mystery that makes up the blue highway.  Aerosmith was right, or was it Emerson?   Sometimes it's about the journey.

Spring Open House

Yesterday was our McRae Studios open house. This is our twice yearly event where we display the latest creations of our 23 artists. The consensus was the crowd was down some. I think we have come to rely a bit too heavily on social media to drive our attendance. Maybe the postcard mailer isn't dead after all.

Show Opening at Crealde Art Center

Tonight, along with Larry Moore and Don Sondag, I will be speaking about my work at a three artist show opening at Crealde Art Center in Winter Park FL. The three of us are landscape painters, Don and Larry being mainly plein air artists. It is always difficult for me to talk about my painting since I don't always know how it happens. Part subconsious, part random, and sometimes a bit of planning thrown in. So it will either enlighten people or they will walk away scratching their heads. Like I said, I don't always get it either.

Targeted Goal

Day 4 of the big push for my Cades Cove Show. I have 4 or 5 small paintings underway and ideas for more but bringing them to completion is always the challenge. I'm hoping I can find that happy creative place where good work flows and no overheated thinking takes place. I always say you have to be there when it happens. With creativity you can't always predict the timing, so stay close to the studio.

November, Cross Creek FL, o/c 5x5

Time for a Big Push

OK, I had my summer vacation from blogging. My mind went blank there for a couple of months anyway. I don't remember stopping painting but that is the great thing about what I do. Little thinking required and sometimes best if avoided.

I returned from Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park last night/early this morning. I took over 500 photos, plein air painted and rode my bike around the 11 mile loop testing the current strength of my heart and leg muscles. I need to get in shape.

I am entering a big push for paintings in the next 60 days for my Landscapes of Cades Cove show at Bennett Galleries in Knoxville TN Oct 2. It is made possible by United Arts of Central Florida, who awarded me with a grant to finance the trip for inspiration and costs associated with the show, and of course Bennett Galleries.

A trip to Cades Cove cant help but inspire a landscape painter and I was in need of a boost. I'll be posting new work here and on my Facebook page, Landscape Paintings by Stephen Bach.

Blue Ridge Getaway

Back from the North Carolina mountains after a few days with friends. Rest was the first priority but painting outdoors and scouting locations for later paintings was what I was looking forward to. That, plus getting to drive curvy roads, my other passion. In between we all sat on a deck looking at Grandfather Mountain in the distance and experiencing the variety of bug life.

Western North Carolina and North Georgia have always been a particular inspiration for me, a Florida flatlander. Painting there is a challenge and a visual relief to the Florida landscape. In many places in the mountains, you can see 50 miles or more. Atmosphere can be a bigger part of the paintng. The difference is inspiring and energizing. Just what we need sometimes.

What's new: Derelict Barn, Robbinsville NC, oil on canvas 8"x10"