Deadlines – the upside
Deadlines. Not a helpful word really. If you don’t make it what really happens? As much as you want to be swallowed up, you don’t fall dead on the line.
Capturing waves, that’s pressure of time but not a deadline.
Building up a body of work – 30+ outdoor paintings for a show. The days didn’t have single deadlines, but the show provided the big one.
Deadlines in an artist’s life are much like anyone else’s. Some are a year or many months away and feel part of the future, while others are so close that they are undeniably in the present. When they are “targets” there is more control. You know, staged approaches, small steps. That feels ok. If time is short and procrastination has crept in, the horror starts. Even in the field, that last 15 minutes before a scheduled lunch feels like pressure if the painting hasn’t taken off yet!
I think that’s why I don’t bother much about schedules when I am painting alone. Work is totally absorbing.
So the upside for me is…the structure they provide. It isn’t the only way I get things done. But deadlines help me. And you?