Complacency, Waiting for Spring daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Waiting for Spring

5x7, acrylic on board

$150 framed

Cold again! Looks like it will be this way all week. We've nothing to complain about visitors are all too willing to tell us as they come into the studio in their sweatshirts. It's much colder where I come from. But for me, I'm sick of sweatshirts, socks and scarfs!

I'm ready for Spring and it's showing up in my palette! When you get comfortable with the colors on your palette, know what to expect of each one, know how it will react with all the other colors you squeeze out for your working day, and exactly how it will mix, it’s time to add a new color to your palette. Or perhaps try a whole new palette.

An artist should never get too comfortable with any materials and methods that allow staying in a comfort zone for too long. That’s not the job of an artist. Experiment, try a color, method or material, think about your work with a fresh eye. Comfort equals complacency, and complacency stifles creativity.

I have thought about this a lot lately because I’ve been painting the Everglades for a long time now. Still, after examining my motives, I know I’m not done yet. I continually see new things, new colors, new forms. The light continues to be fabulous and intrigues and inspires. I don’t copy nature, my paintings come from deep within and resonate with this ancient landscape. The day I feel complacent and the work becomes easy, I’ll try something new.