Painting through the Storm

Ever since Hurricane Harvey I find that I am affected emotionally by storms. As we talked about before it did not help that I was in the Nashville Tornado, then 2 weeks ago here at the house we had a high windstorm and not a few days later we had wind and hail.

Truthfully, I am fighting the emotions that are coming out of this. Tonight, we are supposed to have another strong storm come through in the middle of the night. I am not quivering in my shoes, but I do find my mind returning to the thought of the storm. I do not want to give into the concern any more than what is practical and smart from a safety perspective. I do not want to be controlled by this, but it is like the storm is calling my name. So, in thinking about this I realized that I can probably draw a parallel to painting. After all everything ends in a painting or color for me these days!

Paintings in many points of their inception look like a storm. The paint is everywhere not forming any concrete shape. The colors are like trees bending in the wind leaning every which way on the canvas. The scattered colors are like raindrops cascading down, over and across the canvas. Even the use of mark making on the canvas can simulate the splashes of lightning.

So, what I have decided is I just need to paint my own calming painting in my mind when I feel a little tense about the weather. The grays can become soothing, the flashes of light a beacon to the hope that you can see in yellows, the wind can be the various colors of new growth green in the spring. With these thoughts perhaps I will paint a new abstract and name it “Taming the Storm”. I think I am onto something here!

Do storms bother you? How do you soothe yourself? I would love to hear your thoughts!