What Motivates and Inspires You to Take Action?

What inspires you these days: A book or an author; a famous sports figure or an actor; a remarkable hero, a friend, an unusual painting?

Nature inspires me; the miracle of seed, growth, and transformation into something extraordinary, edible, nutritious or just plain beautiful. Whatever causes you to pause, to contemplate, or to turn your head may be the beginning of a great idea.

From the book “Transform: Dramatically Improve Your Career, Business, Relationships, and Life . . . One Simple Step at a Time," the author, Jeff Haden wrote: “In the dictionary ‘idea’ is a noun. Idea really should be a verb because an idea is not real until you turn your inspiration into action.”

How many opportunities have you missed because you failed to act on your ideas? Sometimes it boils down to laziness or an unwillingness to put in the needed effort.

(These seeds inspire me. The inside is exquisite!)

I heard Mark Cuban say on the CNBC show “Shark Tank,” “If you’re not willing to work 24/7 to build your business, you won’t make it.”

How motivated are you to succeed? What pushes your buttons? For some it’s money, pure and simple. For others it’s a need to feel important or to be involved in a cause bigger than themselves. Family is an important reason for many; the drive to keep the family afloat and to provide every opportunity for their children.

Self-fulfillment and satisfaction is a great motivator for a large segment of the population. Creating something out of nothing or turning a basic idea into something meaningful is just as important as any monetary gratification.

(I gather up a few of these each year, just so I can watch them open and unfold.)

In the March Better Homes and Gardens this quote caught my eye:  “Inspiration is everywhere – Add a touch of fabulous!”

Making your own life “fabulous” or someone else’s is pretty high on my list of perks. My husband gave me these lovely roses for Valentine’s Day. I love roses, especially red ones. I photographed them because I also love to paint them for practice. I don’t sell many paintings of roses, but painting them has given me experience in shading, shape, subtle changes in value and delicate brushwork. Roses inspire me to paint.

    

So do People. The landscape of the figure, the detail in the face and hands inspire me to improve my skill. Right now I’m juggling the differences between oil and acrylic and how dramatically their unique features demand color and application changes.

With acrylics, skin color goes on darker and the brush strokes bolder. With oils, it is possible to portray silky smoothness and seamless movement from one color to the next. I switched from oils to acrylics not by desire, but for health reasons. I’m never completely satisfied with the look of acrylic portraits. It’s an acquired taste, and an expert development of skill that makes all the difference.

(This painting has an acrylic underpainting and was finished in oils.)

You can achieve an almost oil-like appearance with acrylics, but it requires many layers of paint to achieve. Patience is the key. Once you have reached the look you desire, leave that area and go onto the next. Overworking can ruin that just put-down freshness that enlivens a canvas.

(This painting was done in acrylics. The smooth skin is a result of subtle color changes and layering.)

Passion defines those who are inspired and those who are not. Don’t paint something just because you know you can do it. Pour into your paintings only those scenes or images that you are passionate about. Because you love what you are doing, others will fall in love with the result. 

Life is like that, too. Fall in love with your life by being passionate about what you do. If the people you are around drag you down and make you sad – choose different friends. Don’t get involved in causes that are nothing more than “busy work.”  Without the passion and the drive, you’ll end up feeling overworked and frustrated. Love what you do, and do what you love!

(I would love to paint this half-opened bud!)

That’s my Story and I’m Sticking to It!

"Skudeneshavn Norway" Commissioned painting SOLD, Prints available. Sold Print in May.

I have a long list of paintings I want to create. Whenever I get an idea, I quickly jot it down. Some of these gems blossom and some wait in the wings; never to become more than a fleeting wisp of ethereal brain matter.

Many good ideas are beaten down with the big stick of apprehension or common sense. Do I really want to do anything so risque? Would anybody buy such a painting if I did create it? These are the kinds of nagging fears and inhibitions we are told to avoid. They are the pitfalls that drag us into the dark abyss of self-doubt. They make us question our ideas, our inspiration and skill even before we get our ideas off the ground.

"Vikeholmen Lighthouse; Skudenshavn Norway" 20 x 16 acrylic on canvas (Sold Print in May)

We are our own worst enemy. We sabotage ourselves at every turn. First we’re too young and inexperienced; and then when we gain knowledge and skill, we chastise ourselves for not being “at the top of our game.” We ruthlessly compare ourselves to others. We’re not smart enough, good enough, or skilled enough. Someone else is always better.

Finally if and when we reach some semblance of success, we wax melancholy, worrying that perhaps we’ve already reached our mediocre pinnacle. We fear that our encroaching age may make us obsolete or irrelevant.

We humans are so predictable. We want to be this unique and special gift to humanity, but we give up before we’ve even gotten our big toe wet in the gene pool of competition and exposure. We not only fear failure, we fear success.

"Egret Reflections" 8 x 10 oil on canvas SOLD; Prints available

When was the last time you truly believed in yourself and in your ability to not only complete a project, but to fill that empty hole inside where your unfulfilled dreams reside? What is trust but an innate belief in one’s worth?

Does the seed question that it will eventually germinate, blossom, and reproduce? No. It simply does what it was born to do: grow, develop and bloom. The same things we were created to do. We were born to grow, develop and bloom. But rather than nurturing our hopes and dreams, we smother them with insecurities.

The seed sprouts because it is created to grow upward, forever searching for the light. Our fears are born in darkness and by constantly looking inward to measure whether we’re happy or not. Instead of reaching up to our source of strength and inspiration, we become self focused.

Dreams must be outward focused. We reach out and up trusting that we are capable of better things because we are “gloriously and wondrously made.”

An intense desire to share our vision of life with others can pull us out of ourselves and stop the unfruitful tail spin of self-defeat. When you love your craft and trust in your own inner passions, the thrust will automatically bring you fulfillment and completion.

(Solo show at our club house -- shorter hair!)

Darkness is the absence of light; in contrast, light brings a painting to life!

Here the body of Christ forms a cross; the light creates contrast between the earthly and the heavenly realms.

A recent study of adults and children worldwide showed that what they fear most is darkness. This seems to be an inborn fear. For Christians this makes sense since they believe the light of Christ is given to every person who is born. Believers hunger and thirst for light in much the same way that all living things reach for the light.

A seedling pushes through the dark earth in search of the life-giving light of the sun that will nourish it and feed it as it grows. Even the lowest of animal forms seek out light for warmth. On any given morning in Florida, my sidewalk may be filled with lizards that crawl out of their dark havens to warm themselves in the light.

Snakes slither from their dark holes in much the same way. They become intoxicated and lethargic as they drink in the warmth of the sun seemingly blinded by the brightness. You can walk by them and they barely notice

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Darkness is the absence of light. Since children fear what they cannot see, darkness allows their imaginations to run wild. Maurice Sendak illustrates this best in his children’s book: “Where the Wild Things Are” Sendak has taken what we all fear (the darkness) and allowed his character Morris to conquer his fears and put them to rest.

Darkness provides a contrast that makes the value of light seem brighter and whiter. This play of light and shadow is what makes a painting interesting.

Darkness is often used as a reference to evil, and good is portrayed as light. Darkness can also be seductive and intriguing. It is more difficult to ignore sin and temptation in the darkness. We are deceived into thinking that darkness somehow hides or “covers” our sin. Light reveals and exposes truth and evil. No wonder we run from the light when we feel guilty or “bad.” No wonder people, especially children, fear darkness because it leads us into the unknown and may cause us to do bad things.

How artists handle the forces of good and evil, of dark and light sometimes reveals their own belief system.

PETER PAUL RUBENS - MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS

Painted in 1611, Massacre of the Innocents is Rubens' interpretation of Herod's order to kill every young male in Bethlehem, as recounted in the Gospel of Matthew. Featuring nude men ripping babies out of the arms of their mothers and then murdering the children in front of them, the painting is certainly not for the squeamish.

Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/31477/13-disturbing-pieces-art-history#ixzz2lDGtIVez 

The darkness of the background makes the foreground flowers seem even brighter.