I love the artist Caitlin McGauley . I love her style, the way she is both casual and elegant, detailed and subtle. The edges of each object in her paintings are slightly blurred and soft, like my vision when I wake up slowly, from a wonderful dream. I know this in-part due to her choice of media, to the interplay of the paper and the pigment and the water, but it is also do to her vision. Her style. Her way of seeing and then re-seeing, through her paints, the world.
One day I want to sketch, and perhaps even watercolor paint, in a style similar to this. And not for any other reason than because I want to. For me.
I would like to be able to draw and paint renderings of the room designs and party ideas I dream up. To me, being able to paint or draw what I see in my head would be a magical way to test-run and explore creative ideas without having to actually implement them in real life. A way to see if I like the red rug with the yellow sofa before I go and spend my time and money and effort – all of which are often in short supply.
I would love to be able to create, on paper, images of my day-dreams. All those “someday” ideas that roll around my imagination: The Craft and Notions Shop, my Ideal Farmhouse, my County Fair Party idea, the Screen Porch on the back of the house.
To me, one of the things I love most about being a creative person, is the satisfaction that comes from being able to take something out of my imagination and form it into something that can be seen by my actual eyes, not just my minds eye. Sometimes that means I actually need to create the thing I dream up into a real three deminsional object. I need to paint my cabinets or sew new curtains or rearrange the living room or host a Candlemas party. Other times though, there are all these ideas swirlling around my brain that are too big for real life. They are too grand, or too expensive or too time consuming for me to tackle now. And that is okay with me. I don’t feel cheated by my reality. I am okay with never actually having a little craft store, or building a second floor onto our house. But I would like to find a way to get these visions, these ideas and images out of my brain and onto paper in a colorful and expressive way. I would like to find a way to bring them into the physcial world, where I can visit them from time to time, show them to the light of day, and enjoy them fully. Where I can experiance them beyond just thinking about them, but without having to committ to the whole enchilada. I guess what I am saying is, for me, learning how to sketch or paint my dream house, would be a way to in fact have my cake and eat it too.
And that is why, one day, I am going to learn to paint and draw.
Maybe even one day soon.
You just never know.
lovely post. You put into words what I feel a lot. I have been called a dreamer or my visions unrealistic, but it is simply that my head is always swirling with new ideas of things to make and try and then what could possibly come of it all…my creations and life. I am so good with whatever happens, I am a very blessed woman. But God made me this way and I am so happy He did. I have my flaws, lots of them, but it is so very fun to allow my mind to wander, my imagination to run wild, and to feel the freedom to create.