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Art Quotes, Discipline and drawing, Pastels by Mary Gentle Compassion, Patience and drawing, Patience Quotes, timeout for Art: Discipline and Patience, Timeout for Art: YOU CAN DO THIS
Detail: Gentle Compassion – http://oilpastelsbymary.com/
I felt my energy revive, and said to myself, In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing. From that moment everything has seemed transformed for me. (Vincent Van Gogh to Theo)
The TIMEOUT FOR ART posts started in May, and Mary of Pastels by Mary climbed aboard and pledged to devote thirty minutes to drawing each week. (See Thursdays will be for Drawings) Here’s what she said back in May, “…Oh boy – I’m not sure what I got myself into, but I’ve joined in with Z of Playamart to draw for 30 minutes each Thursday. I haven’t been drawing lately and decided it’s a good way to polish my drawing skills and discipline myself to pay attention and concentrate on my subjects – drawing always had a way of doing that for me. …”
What impressed me with Mary’s weekly Timeout for Art posts was that she disciplined herself to STOP after half an hour of drawing, and she set aside the work until the next week.
Having the discipline to stop a work of art when it’s going well is like taking one bite of pizza and saying, ‘That’s enough!’ Having the discipline to resume a week later is like getting motivated to run after eating an entire pizza!
Week after week, Mary devoted half an hour (or slightly more) on her pencil study of a retired racehorse named Pacific Reach. During Week 8, Mary shared the sad news that Pacific Reach had died. How sobering is that? See: Gentle Compassion #7.
The following images show the evolution of Mary’s drawing, “Gentle Compassion.”
May 30, 2013
Great patience is called for on the hard path that I have entered on. Edgar Degas
June 06, 2013
Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown. Soren Kierkegaard
June 13, 2013
Patience is the art of concealing your impatience. Guy Kawasaki
June 20, 2013
Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily. Johann Friedrich von Schiller
June 27, 2013
The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it. Arnold H. Glasow
July 04, 2013
Talent is long patience. Gustave Flaubert
July 11, 2013
A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else. George Savile
July 18, 2013
What they call talent is nothing but the capacity for doing continuous work in the right way. Winslow Homer
July 25, 2013
Whoever submits himself to a super-discipline can expect great triumphs.
― Samael Aun Weor
August 01, 2013
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all. Michelangelo
August 08, 2013
How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success. Elbert Hubbard
August 15, 2013
Genius is eternal patience. –Michelangelo
Mary shared a rough sketch with her first post, and she confessed, “I expect this will take me weeks, if not months to draw, if only working on it 30 minutes once/week – so over time you’ll get to see my progress and if you have patience with me hopefully the end result will be well worth the time.”
I think that she did well, don’t you? If so, please visit her site and give her a thumbs up!
May 23, 2013
Here’s her first post: http://oilpastelsbymary.com/2013/05/30/thursday-drawing-horse-gentle-compassion-week-1/
and her final: http://oilpastelsbymary.com/2013/08/15/thursdays-drawing-gentle-compassion-2/
Thanks, Mary, for teaching us through example about discipline and patience! Well done! For those of you pondering, “Should I take a timeout for art, see the post that kicked off the series: Timeout for Art YOU CAN DO THIS!!!
Z
(This was set to “Publish on: Aug 21, 2013 @ 22:04” – however, the gates did’t let the horse out of the stable! Glad I awakened to peer at the moon!) Have a great day, everyone!)
Zeebra Designs & Destinations 
🙂 … ok …
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I have been inspired by your post Lisa and I have kept doing some sketching each week, mostly I do not think they are good enough to share, but maybe if I show you my efforts, warts and all, it will inspire others to “have a go”
I’ve followed Mary and think her beautiful drawing is full of feeling and compassion.
you’re having a great time immersed where you are,& your artistic eye is never stopping either! you’re sharing lots w/your beautiful images! z
I’m so pleased you started me sketching again Lisa. It really makes me study things closely as I try to capture them in a pencil sketch
yes, we see details that we’d not notice if we just snapped the image w/a camera!
I love this art journey. Thank you for sharing it with us :>)
thanks, patti! it’s my honor to present mary’s work and share the tale of her amazing patience!
I know, I can’t even imagine having her (and your) talent!
it’s whatever one loves, and we both get comfort from drawing and painting… if you enjoyed drawing, you could master it as well!!!
Great post! And I especially like Balzac’s comment: Discipline makes art of impulse.
thanks hugh! i tried for two days to comment on your last post, and the internet does NOT want to connect. it says, ‘sorry; your request isn’t possible right now’ or something silly like that from wp!
That’s not just you. I’ve been suffering from the same “Your comment cannot be posted” foolishness all morning, and I’m running on broadband. It’s some sort of WP glitch. I’ve got a question in the forums about it right now. If I find out anything, I’ll let you know. And it only happens on certain posts. I’m wondering if it might be theme related.
In the meantime, I’m doing a ctrl+c on every comment when this message starts popping up again. I’ve found if I copy my comment, then refresh the page, I can repost it without problems.
hey! thanks for this feedback! and to think that i was most likely cursing my internet provider at that moment!
it’s ultra slow again today, and i’m looking at the two options via claro or movistar cell phone service with the thumb-drive modem. sigh. i think instead i will take the magic carpet for a spin and come see all of you in person!!!
Inspiring and humbling. Thanks for sharing this.
thanks amiga
i’m behind on your and on ron’s posts and look forward to the cuban stories! internet’s dragging!
z
Dearest Lisa, thank you so much for this beautiful post – you brought tears to my eyes. It’s a wonderful way to start my day, if it wasn’t for your challenge my pencils would still be in their pretty case not seeing the light of day! So thank you, your motivation to get back at it propelled me. Today I begin my next drawing challenge. Thank you – Winslow had it right!
amiga, you are so deserving, and i’m honored that you approve of this post! it has been a great positive experience to watch the week to week progress. you have taught all of us many many lessons. thanks! z
I’m the one that is honored for your wonderful gesture, thank you Lisa – it was one of the most thoughtful posts I’ve read. Thank you for the time and energy you put into putting this post together. You are an amazing amiga (how about that?!)!
And you are genius! 🙂
amiga! i’m not different than anyone else just trying to be positive, not let others pull me down, and trying to add a smile to the quality of my day. you do that as well, even when you have lots on your plate, you still have time for others! thank you!
Thanks Lisa. You can always manage to put a smile on my face. 🙂
you deserve it! i wish i were there having tea or coffee or juice with both of you! seems like a quiet moment right now.. i hope that it is there! z
Actually it has been a pretty challenging couple of weeks but life seems to be getting gentler once again. One of these days we will head to your little neck of the woods. I would so love to see your magic carpet up close and personal. 🙂
that would be great!
Unbelievable! I am inspired and impressed!
that’s great! she impressed me as well! what patience and dedication!
I do so enjoy what I’m doing with my digital art, but this inspires me to spend more time drawing by hand again. Thankyou for sharing these with us. Tony
It was an honor to work with the evolution of mary’s drawing. we’ve all learned a lot from her dedication and patience!
Very impressive! Thank you for sharing these images…I’m heading over to her site right now!
how great cindy! be prepared to be impressed! mary is quite talented! (as are you!)
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Simply wonderful! The quotes, seeing the evolution week by week. And a lesson in patience. Thanks for posting this.
thank you! mary is so talented, and i’m glad you enjoyed watching the evolution of her work!
Mary’s work is lovely, Lisa. Thanks for highlighting it this week. My post for today comes at the request of my niece, who wanted to see the photos and pencil drawing for a picture I posted last Friday.
it’s great when themes merge, and your post fits this week’s perfectly! thanks for showing the evolution of the painting! z
I too love Mary’s work. A lovely post.
thanks! and to think that she sometimes has self doubt! ha! her work stands strong always! as does yours, btw!
I love this…how difficult it must be to discipline yourself to stop and go at this rate.
i would have a hard time stopping each week! on my first post, i mentioned stopping for just half an hour and spending time with art, with drawing, even circles and shading.. just the soothing act of drawing is amazing… and she did it – week after week after week!
She is simply amazing! I told her she thought me the art of patience,
I going to try this 30 minutes with my paintings and go, sometimes we artists ruin something because we go on instead of resting like the oak tree, that is why I took the pictures of the tree today.
Saludos amiga!
doris, that is such a beautiful comment! yes, we need to rest like the oak tree!
good luck!
z
What wonderful patience and discipline and how lovely to see the drawing emerge over time. I find it so hard to stop once I am motivated/activated.
ha@! i do as well.. it’s two in the morning here, and i just stopped work on the compass.. when it’s going well, it’s so very hard to stop..my body says stop, but my mind is still in the ‘circle’ and wishing i could resume..
i’m going to put the images on the computer and go to sleep!
i just took a look at that post w/the cookies. yum.. what a great treat that would be before i go to sleep!
how’s ‘tomorrow’ going over there?!!!!
z
It’s looking good 🙂 Sleep well. I was up till 2 in the morning after my mad night in the kitchen!
What talent. Patience, practice and preserverence.
Hey soulmate, this is beautiful and inspirational. Your reminders of personal self discipline, so very important, not just in art but so many aspects of our life! Wonderful story, quotes, and illustrations (I especially enjoyed how you walked us through the evolution of Mary’s emotional story, personal discipline and drawings! Thank you, my wise and caring friend! xx
thank you! if only all posts were so easy to design! mary did all of the work!!!
z
Yes but you passed it on, didn’t you my friend! Making her and her artistry shine even more in the process!
Patience, practice and perseverance are so important whether we’re learning to draw, learning to care for an elderly relative or learning to bake a decent pie.
It feels to me as though the message of this post is just a variation on something I’ve always believed (well, at least for the last five or six years): the best way to learn to write is to write. The best way to learn to draw is to draw. The best way to to learn how to cook is to turn our backs on all those processed foods and bring home a danged carrot, for heaven’s sake!
I love these quotations. I’m going to copy them into my little quotations file so I can read them again and again. Everyone needs reminding now and then!
carrots? i immediately thought of carrot cake! why is that, because i did bring home carrots a few days ago and have done nothing with them. i was thinking, ‘shredded carrot salad’ or cooked in a stew…. but your comment made me think of carrot cake!
ja!
thanks for always adding wit, wisdom and personality to the comment section! z
This is a really nice post, and you are such a terrific champion of art and artists everywhere.
I too think Mary did well. The patience over time paid off.
Your talent for encouraging/inspiring others to express themselves artistically constantly amazes me. And, of course, you have so much fun! Ah …. perhaps there’s the answer!!!
it’s really easy to encourage others! and yes, it’s fun!
Lack of patience I realised is a fairing that has handicap me. So this post and the quotes are pertinent for me. This is an inspirational post with the example and appropriate quotes.
what a gift it was to witness the weekly progress! i’m glad you enjoyed the summary!