If you hear a voice within you say...

...you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” 
Vincent Willem van Gogh

Whenever I doubt my creative abilities I return to one of my favourite quotes (above) for inspiration and encouragement.

My best friend commissioned a painting weeks ago and I've been procrastinating for ages on getting it started.  I could be generous and say all my time and creative juices were being used crocheting the Cuddle Blanket, and of course I've been ill, but I know deep down that I could have been doing more than colour testing and faffing around deciding on which brushes to use.  But really, unless I am in the mood to paint, there is no point in forcing it as it never ends well.

It's one of the reasons I didn't go to art college.  Having to create day in and day out would have been impossible for me.  I admire fellow creatives who wake up every morning with the compulsion to create.  Some days I am like that and it's amazing, I literally can't do anything else until I've had a pencil in my hand and sketched something, or a paintbrush full of watercolour paint, or even a crochet hook.  Then I hit a slump and have to step back for a bit.  Thankfully I know myself well enough to know the burning urge to paint will return, and this morning when I woke up it was there!  Hooray!  :-)

Of course it struck on the day I should have been getting organised for David's cousin Cilla from Canada visiting on Wednesday, with two of his mum's cousins, for afternoon tea.  I had planned to look out the china (I am using David's mum's Wedding China tea set.  It seems like a nice way to include her in the visit :-) and get the table set, make the biscuit dough for Empire biscuits to be baked tomorrow and generally tidy up, but that all fell by the wayside and instead I got the drawing, the masking and the initial washes of Agnes and Adrian's painting done.  It will be Thursday before I can get back to it (unless I sneak in an hour tomorrow morning ;-)

P.S.Just seen it was five years ago today that David got my old paint brushes and paints down from the loft after the urge to paint returned after many, many years of not painting! So happy it returned although I would be much richer if it hadn't!!  hahahahaha!