painting in a studio is great, with control over the environment, good lighting, a sense of freedom and purpose and privacy within your own walls. painting at a desk in an office has all the elements of a guilty pleasure, painting at the kitchen table feels like really luxuriating in being at home.
but there's nothing quite like painting outside.
the air helps. air which is fresh and which is moving all around you, air which doesn't actually stop but goes all the way through the earth's atmosphere and wraps around the globe, moving around the outsides of the buildings. the ground helps, under your feet, the actual planet, palpable, the contact between bare foot and grass and the earth beneath, all the way down to the core.
chance and randomness and weather help, a lack of control over the environment. stray grass blades get stuck in the paint. you may spend a while removing insects as they wander across to save them from a sticky, colorful death. the wind blows the paper up, dampness appears on it. chance makes a part of the work, takes the pressure off, there is a sense of collaboration, connection, interplay between you, the paint, the paper and everything else, the vastly so much more of that.
moving your body around when the paper is on the ground, all the muscles and the centre of gravity. the whole body is a part of the poise and the painting, it's all involved in the action. it's more than just your mind and your hand.
less pretence is available when you're painting on the ground, outdoors, it keeps you humble and that is a good place for creation, your ego is not able to get so much in the way. less pretence, and more life, more disruptions, annoyances, more genuineness and more creativity as more of the world joins in. all of it a constant process of change and creation.
it's more fun and reminds you of being a child, or in a childlike state, or makes that accessible to you now, even if your childhood was serious and mostly took place inside.
of course painting in the rain would be quite another matter, more of a spiritual practice as the work immediately disappears, but when the sun is out or at least it's dry enough, i can't encourage you more strongly - enjoy yourself, let go, forget results. get a large piece of paper and some cheap paint, squeeze the tube and off you go. you are nature, and nature will take care of the rest.
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