Bears Ears

We decided to move our invitation to public plein air with us event to a sooner date. We had one attendant rsvp, and he was anxious to get outside and create. Jim, from our educational event, joined us for a full day and night of Plein Air Public Lands: Utah. He packed his car with chocolates and Cheetos to share and plenty of paint and canvases for adventure.

Plein Air Paint Out!

Rex and Jim started the day early, heading out before sunrise to beat the heat and crowds. They set up along the nine-mile loop with a spectacular vista of Bear Ears

After the morning in Natural Bridges National Park, we set out to Butler Wash area for a camp and plein air spot. Jim was driving a low-clearance vehicle, so we needed a dirt road that wasn’t pocked with too many rocks or holes. We settled down a dirt road that had enough flat ground for our canopy tent, the truck, and its rooftop tent, and for Jim’s standard ground tent.

Workplace Environment

We set up and got to work…well, I tried. Again, I suffered from the melty brain. I tried to find my words but came up empty, often.

Sweaty Scribe

I scrawled in big loose cursive as if the pen were melting in my hand. I love my rite in the rain journal, but it doesn’t seem to be sweat-proof. As soon as I put my arm down to rest in between thoughts, I come away with speckled skin. War wounds, fighting to find my words in the battlefield of simmer and grindstone. But it could be worse. I could be fighting with quill and ink.

Jim and Rex both got two paintings done during the all day paint out. In my opinion, all four are successes and beautiful. But I think the artists may have other options/thoughts. We are our most challenging critic, often expecting more and are disappointed more often. It’s the same process with writing. Whatever was eligible and sensible writing today will most likely be crap to my inner critic tomorrow.

War of Art

Steven Pressfield writes in War of the Art about that ugly feeling, called Resistance.

“Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is… Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease and erectile dysfunction. To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.”

But Steven says, “The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”