Linzé's Mischief: 23 August 2016

New Year's Resolutions and Unfinished Paintings

I am all for having New Year's resolutions, but like many people I have a hard time sticking to them. This year, however, seems to be the exception to that rule - to my delight, I have to say.
When the first of the year rolled around - seven months and a few hundred hours ago - I made myself the promise to do more art this year. Sure, I have always set aside one month of the year, usually December, where I do nothing else except art.
But as a writer first and foremost, this created some problems: despite my intentions, I always ended up writing instead. I did paint, or sketch, but not as much as I wanted to, and always had to spend more time getting my fingers into 'art' more instead of writing mode.
So I set a new challenge for myself: I was going to do art one weekend every month. It lessens the guilt and withdrawal symptoms of not writing for days on end, and my fingers don't forget their art skills. Win-win all around!
And it has been working like a charm. I have three books (maybe four) coming out this year, one being the fourth novel in my fantasy romance series, and I have managed to do more sketching and painting than I have managed in the Decembers of the past few years.
After submitting my tiger for the Art Feeds the Soul competition in my art group earlier this week, I have been wondering what to do next. I have some ideas, one or two already outlined, but somehow the call of the paintbrush/pencil/pastel didn't come when I looked at those. Frustrated, I went back to editing Waiting for Adrian, and then got stuck in a scene where I have to rewrite the whole thing.
Irritated with my lack of progress in any creative project, I set about cleaning up the library (where I paint) at home. And there stood (taller than I am!) an unfinished painting that I started many years ago. I took off the very dusty plastic covering and stared at it for an indecent amount of time - it was like staring at the scary blank screen when starting a new writing project. Something had to be done!
It is an abstract resembling a lead-glass window inspired by a book I bought, even more years ago with the designs from Frank Lloyd Wright. I took one look at that book and bought it without giving it a second thought. So while my brain ponders the rewrite of that very important scene between Erin and Adrian, I will be expending my creative energies on painting my orchid lead-glass window on canvas.

What do you do when a creative project is not going to plan?