Blue – #5 Lent Painting

These pour paintings have been a messy, marvelous, new adventure! No paintbrush comes into play and I have very little control as to what the design turns out to be. I get to choose my colors, dump the paint on a canvas and tilt the canvas until the surface and sides are covered. I splattered a few more color highlights at the end but the final canvas continues to amaze me.

I’ve learned several life lessons through this creative process and I would highly encourage everyone to take the “pour paint challenge” at least once. The outcome will surprise you in the most beautiful way and you will discover some things about yourself in the middle of the mess, and I do mean mess! I was literally covered in color painting these, 2 small, 4×6 box frames.

Loving every minute of it!

Pour Painting Life-lessons:

• The colors you choose will set the tone of the canvas. The decisions we make will set the trajectory of our lives.
• It takes a lot more paint than you expect to completely cover the surface and sides. If we aim for the quick fix and cutting corners building a life, we will come to the end of it unfinished.
• You must be patient tilting the canvas. To truly get the desired outcome, you can’t rush a drip making its way through all the colors. If you try to rush it, it just muddies the palette. If we try to rush through our lives we will just be left with muddy memories from the journey we missed trying to reach an anticlimactic destination.
• Watching the painting emerge is fascinating and the final canvas continues to be a treasure chest of new discovery every time I go back and look at it. Examining the picture from different angels and changing lights reveals more of the story. We are meant to live our entire lives becoming who we really are. Examining our lives from difference perspectives and new lights will always reveal more depth and beauty in our narrative.
• The process is messy but if you stick with it, the final outcome is a masterpiece. Life is messy, but if we stick with it, letting the beauty from ashes come, we will finish well.

Last life lesson, at least for tonight, from this pour painting adventure:

The pictures that I take and post of these paintings do not capture the whole truth as to what’s there:

• the canvas looks much bigger than it is,
• some of the colors are not nearly as vibrant as they are in person,
• a photo barely captures any of the depth and texture,
• and looking at something in 2D doesn’t allow for new perspectives and varied lights.

It’s important to remember when watching lives on social media, that it’s possible:

• the highlight reel is magnified but the reality can be quite different;
• the filters people use can distort the true life of another;
• there is always more depth and texture to a life than meets the eye,
• and before we go and form an opinion based on a 2D snapshot, we should remember our limited perspective and assume the most radiant reality in person.