Painting what I said I wanted to paint

I would choose the bear too

It’s been quite the ride this past week as I battle the common cold, sniffling while congested, and enduring sore muscles but couldn’t fall asleep. It was a relief to wake up today to a clearer (relatively) sinus and breathe in the nice fresh air from the sunny weekend; Seattle’s Spring of Deception!

I impulsively dragged Elliot to the zoo with me while we were out and about doing chores. The thick fog that covered Seattle in the morning was starting to disperse, and the animals were also rousing to enjoy the sunny day.

My favorite part of Woodland Park Zoo was its immersive exhibits. When you visit each zone, it feels like you’re peeking into its habitat, not a sterile enclosure. Other than the popular snow leopards, my second favorite place to visit is the zoo’s Living Northwest Trail, featuring brown bears, elks, river otters, and the regal sea eagles (sadly the grey wolf packs have all passed in the last few years). Walking through the exhibit feels like exploring an urban trail. When I visit early in the morning when there are fewer crowds, it even seems like the animals are observing me instead.

Today, the brown bear is out rolling in the grass, enjoying the sunny day. I captured the serene scene of the rolling field, bracketed by thick pine trees. I snap a photo of the scene, “I want to paint this later”. I always do this though, having saved more than a few hundred photos on my phone for the “paint it later” that never materialized. Part of it was my perfectionism that wanted to find the “perfect time” to sit and create the “perfect painting”, knowing full well that’s unrealistic.

To combat the fear of “not making an ideal painting”, I spontaneously started painting during my journaling livestream on Twitch today. It helped that I had all the tools at the ready: the brushes and palette in a readily-packed Art Toolkit, and the paper already cut to size and ready to use. I even had water ready in my small portable containers. There’s nothing that’s holding me back, so here I go.

Painting with watercolor is a funny thing. You start confident, and then you enter a “what the hell is going on” stage, but the result always proves you wrong because everything will eventually be all right. Halfway through, I’m squinting my eyes and purposefully blurring my vision while I paint so I am painting the light and shadowed part instead of being hung up by details.

I’m not 100% satisfied with it, because it didn’t achieve the transparent and light effect that I wanted. However, I’m glad I did it. It’s just like pushing myself to go to the gym regardless of how effective the workout is — creating art takes practice, period.

Why don’t you paint something today too?