Painting | 964

Lukasz Laniecki
Jul 30, 2017 · 4 min read

My Author Journey, Saturday, July 29, 2017

# 964 (countdown)

Today was the last day of my summer holiday with my family.

I have mixed feelings about this time.

It was a good time with a lot of fun and I was close to nature. I saw a lot of new things. I could experiment with taking photos. I realized how daily photography transformed the way I look at things around me.

For example I saw this view and was instantaneously enthralled by it.

I thought it would make an awesome painting and started wondering how painters pick the theme of their next painting.

I guess they don’t overthink it. I guess they just do it.

But what if this theme was used by another painter in the past? What if it’s a very common one? I think a real artist wouldn’t worry about such things. If that’s what she / he got inspired by, that’s exactly what her / his next work will be about.

My understanding is that real artists rarely, if ever, pick the theme of their next work. It picks them. The theme picks them. They get inspired by it. They never know what it will be. If one of them said I’ll go to New York to take photos of the buildings or people of New York this theme appeared in his / her head because of something else. Something else triggered the idea. Those themes don’t appear out of nowhere.

Composers write their music in the same way. Sculptors make their sculptures in the same way. Performance artist do their performances in the same way.

I imagined myself painting it. I fantasized about being able to paint it.

How? What technique? If I took up painting today, and painted every day (like I did with writing just a year and a half ago), how long before I can paint something I could be really proud of? Would a certain technique allow me to improve faster? How about a new technique?

How should I take those photos? Should I worry that I know very little about photography or should I consider it my advantage? Should I learn photography from books? Should I apprentice?

Is it possible that someone else (not only I) will enjoy my work and get inspired by it if I never read a single book about photography or apprentice? What about those who painted inside caves? I guess they would never ask themselves similar questions. And yet we admire those paintings and get inspired by them regardless of their quality.

When is the work complete? The moment I press the shutter release button, or the moment the file is saved on my memory card or hard drive after I made some changes in it? Is adjusting the camera parameters before taking a photo the same as editing the file after a photo was taken?

Below is the original. Above are photos after I made some changes in them.

So why do I have those mixed feelings? Because it was an exhausting time for me. When I can’t stick to my normal writing schedule I struggle to get my writing done. It’s really hard to get it done and at the same time spend time with my family like “normal” people do. At the same time I cannot not do it. I cannot not write.

Maybe I should redefine summer holiday? Just like I redefined weekends. Weekends are no more a time in which I rest, like “normal” people. I work on weekends and it’s also an uphill battle to get my work done on weekends as weekend is a very different time for most people.

Maybe I shouldn’t expect that I will come back home rested? Maybe for me a summer holiday is a time when I fight an uphill battle? Maybe that’s what it is for someone who is an anomaly?

Progress on my second book. Zero editing.

My today’s answers on Quora:

Answer to How do you know that something is your passion?

Music for this writing session: Alexandre Desplat (random picks, on spotify)

Then Ash by Secession Studios(on spotify, on repeat)

Then Annie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (on spotify).

Diary of an artist

Documenting my creative process

Lukasz Laniecki

Written by

Thinker | Writer | Artist | 100% Positivity | Zero Excuses My books 📚 http://amzn.to/2qdiu6c

Diary of an artist

Documenting my creative process

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