The joy of painting outside: part one
Being outside + creating something = all the good feelings
The other week I decided that I was going to go and paint outside. I wasn’t sure where, and I didn’t know what I was going to paint, but I decided that I wanted to be outside and do a bit of painting. Shortly after this thought, my mum rang me, to which I swiftly answered, “Hi mum, I’m going to go somewhere and paint outside. Do you want to come with me?” I received an excited “Oooh, go on then!” in response, which quickly turned to a “Oh, but I can’t paint. What if there are other people around? Won’t it be cold? What if I need the toilet?”
These are the same kind of thoughts that went through my head when I made the decision to go out that morning (well, not so much the toilet one, but my mum has always been a lot more practical than me). That initial feeling of spontaneity and freedom was quickly met with doubt and fear, and it was very easy to start convincing myself not to go through with it. But when I heard those words coming out of someone else’s mouth I had absolutely no hesitation in giving all the reasons to do it and squashing all the reasons not to (more on these in part two).
I took my mum’s hesitancy as a challenge, and we managed to find a great National Trust spot with fab views, shelter and the all-important facilities! And I actually ended up being so focused on helping her to enjoy the experience that I totally forgot my own insecurities and anxieties about painting in public. We had a great time, discovered a lovely new outside space and created some lovely art amongst it all. Win, win, win.
This was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me, in that whenever I now decide to go out in public to paint or draw, I just pretend that I’m convincing someone else to do it rather than myself. I’m pretty sure it’s just called following your own advice, practising what you preach etc., but it’s a revelation all the same!
The next week, I was telling a friend about the day out with my mum and laughing about how random the whole thing had been but what a great time we’d had. She responded by saying how brilliant she thought it was and how much she would love to go painting outside, which at the time I thought was just her way of being polite and entertaining my story. However, in the two or three weeks since this encounter this friend has brought up the subject of painting outside approximately four or five times and we are currently organising a date (having small children and full time jobs requires such advance planning!).
A seed had obviously been sown and I love how determined my friend is to live out her outside painting dream! Again, I had another lightbulb moment: maybe other people might like the idea of painting outside too?
If you’re one of those people then I’d recommend reading part two of this piece, where I list out the ways you can make it happen!