Finding Inspiration In Small Pieces

'Lavender Magic'            9x14         pastel            ©Karen Margulis
available $195

 It was a quiet day. My studio was clean and organized and I was looking for something to paint. I am not usually at a loss for inspiration. My problem is the opposite. I have too many ideas for paintings! I sometimes can't decide because I am overwhelmed. One of the things I do is keep an Inspiration Jar which I have blogged about . Click here to read.  But today I came across another great idea for inspiration shared by Tony Allain.

Tony shared his tip on Facebook and I am so glad I saw it today. I adapted it a bit but here is the main idea: Make a small viewfinder. Matboard works great. Use the viewfinder on your reference photos to discover small areas that could be made into paintings. I have done this in the past but I use artist tape to tape off my new composition within the photo.

This is a great way to find simple areas in complicated reference photos or to get more milage from a favorite reference!  I found a long narrow section of one of my Provence photos. It was the perfect size for a piece of black scrap  paper I had. See below. 

Thanks Tony for sharing your tip! I am sure I will use it more often!

My 'new' reference photo ad paper. It is Black Canson Mi-Teintes paper. 

This is the first layer of the painting,