Have you ever started a painting without a plan? Have you ever just put paintbrush to paper or canvas without "knowing" what you were trying to paint? Well, this is called intuitive painting.
Intuitive painting is exploration with a drawing or painting instrument in your hand. Remember your first time? As a child? You had no planning and a future goal (the finished piece!) in mind, and you simply allowed yourself to be open more to being present and being self-expressive.
Intuitive painting does not teach you how to be creative. You don’t need anyone telling you how to go about doing that. But the practice shows you how to let go of things that get in the way of your full creative expression like perfectionism, comparison and the false goal of "the finished piece". Intuitive painting guides you in mustering the courage to explore and experiment, to make things up and take improbable and implausible creative risks.
So many things about being an artist are painful or difficult or scary. Many pieces simply don’t turn out the way we want them too. And when confronted with those kinds of challenges our first impulse is to try to change or fix them. But to let go of the need for certainty and guarantees, one must embrace fully the unknown. I invite you to open up and let your heart guide you. Play with you materials and tools. Use it as a warm-up. Fill several pages in your journal with paints you scrape on with a credit card, or splatter on with a toothbrush... it is just the beginning of your process... it starts right here and now!