A foggy morning made simplifying easy.
Who else wants to simplify?
Simple views where my mind is free from clutter, and my paw paw is happy too.
Art is such a metaphor for life. It’s a commitment: showing up, not giving up, being in the moment. Practicing and practicing and never giving up. Learning to simplify and how to do it your way. It reminds me so much of our journey called life.
A great example of a landscape that requires simplifying. Can you imagine how busy the painting would be with every sunflower represented?
Simplify. Let’s stop there for a moment. It’s been on my mind a lot lately. Simplifying in art is one of your first “art school” lessons, and is particularly important for a plein air painter. There is so much beauty in nature you can be tempted to throw so much in a painting. I mean, how to make these breathtaking vistas real to a viewer with just a canvas? The birds, the feel of the sun and the breeze on your face. The details everywhere. But this will make for a very busy painting, and the irony is that the best way to express the beauty is to simplify and highlight just one area in a painting.
The same is true with life. Less is more. This new lifestyle I’ve been granted with the addition of our cottage in Leelanau has me looking at life differently. I want to be able to focus on what I love most: art and being outside, and quality time with “my people” (including my fur baby).
The vast expanse of Lake Michigan allows me to think. Space!
This desire to simplify has me going through closets and cupboards and cleaning out, purging and whittling things down to the essentials. The plan is to put everything I own in my hand at some point and ask if it brings me joy or not. If it does not, it will move on to a new home somewhere else. In doing this, the goal is to simplify my time, my life, my mind and my art.
I’ll check back in with you down the line to report how “Plan Simplify” is going. In the meantime, what are your stories of simplification? How has this concept or action affected your life? Come over and talk about it on Facebook and Instagram!
