Positive Attitude

Serious athletes devote hours to conditioning, honing skills, perfecting techniques for their particular sport, and practice, practice, practice. And it's true that physical training—and inherent talent—can take an athlete far. A necessary part of maximizing their athletic potential includes having the right attitude.

Athlete are enjoy competitive sports, developing a positive mental attitude can help give you an edge.  

I believe that artists also need to have a positive attitude before starting a painting.

Competitive athletes use visualization exercises prior to competing. This basically means that they imagine a scenario in which they are competing and doing well.  During this exercise, they use all of their senses—imagining the sound of the crowd cheering, the smell in the air, how the ground feels under your feet, or how the ball feels in your hands. There is some truth to the idea that if you can think it, you can do it, so use this wisdom when you compete.

Several studies have demonstrated that positive visualization could decrease your urgency of working towards your goal or stop you from properly preparing for the obstacles you will encounter along the way.

Visual artists can also use visualization exercises prior to applying the first brushstroke on paper. These exercises are possible when an artist has properly planned how to approach their painting.

A positive attitude can help artists stay motivated and help avoid overwhelm and anxiety and  produce better paintings.  This approach must be combined with hours of practice.

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Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

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Here is my latest painting. I worked on this for more than a week slowly building up the colours.  I'm calling it "Last Peonies of the Year".

Last Peonies of the Year

Since my son is getting married in my garden is two weeks, I suspect that I won't get much painting done during this period.

Have a great week,

Danielle