The Story Behind the Painting: A Walk in the Woods
The way out is through…
Acrylic on canvas
Completed 26/03/2025
This is only a very small painting.
This is the most recent painting that I have shared anywhere except with my boyfriend and a friend. Like all of my recent pieces it’s had no social media debut, no airtime on Facebook or Instagram at all, I don’t care to either. I completed it a little over a month ago.
As of last year’s epic artist’s block my new thing now is to let my paintings marinade for a while before showing them to the world. So, why am I showing you this one now? The short answer is that it felt right. Is there anything special about it? That depends, not overly for most people I suppose. In essence, this is a straightforward, simple painting that I guess took me about 15 hours, maybe 20 at a push. As far as magic goes, the magic happened upon completion.
26/03/2025 is a very special date for me as far as 2025 is concerned. That’s the day I finally got out of debt. I had no idea of the enormity of the burden it placed on me and I went about my payment in the most blasé of manners. Up until that point I’d been keeping track of all payments in and out of my bank account in a notebook as I found this to be more reliable, detailed, and instant than waiting for a bank statement. That morning I wrote down my final credit card payment, took a photo of it and sent it to my boyfriend. And that’s when it hit me. I sat and cried tears of relief for the next ten minutes. After that I cried on and off for the next hour. A dead weight had just fallen off my shoulders. I was finally free after years of debt, free from the dregs of the pandemic, finally. Making that final payment was a top priority for me on the 26th so I did it immediately after my morning meditation. The plan was to finish A Walk in the Woods after that.
While I was working on the painting previous to this one I had the idea of a return to a topic I hadn’t looked at for a while. That topic is forests, trees, the woods, nature, and fusing it with the mystical, the ineffable. I left that topic behind in 2021 after doubling down and going to town on it. Upon finishing this painting’s predecessor I had a short break between paintings, call it an artistic reset, and then I went out on a short walk for some reference photos. The reference photos are a far cry from mystical. The lighting is awful and the area looks a mess. Of course, the photos were for reference only, just to give me an idea. I feel it’s a lot more original and from the heart than using a photo from the internet, not that using a photo from the internet for inspiration is a bad thing, I do that a lot too. It’s all about how you use imagination.
The reference photos, literally only for reference. Otherwise they really are quite awful…
Green is my least favourite colour to use, however I was adamant that this piece needed to be green. Green out of the tube, while fine for blocking in, never really looks right beyond that. Mixing green is far from an exact science too, getting the desired tone can be a nuisance. Still, this piece had to be green because I said so! Given my green-phobia I feel the shades of green came out well in this, for me anyway. I also took the time to reacquaint myself with my seldom used fan brush for the grass. Ok, the grass looks a bit crap, but I’m fine with that. Believe it or not I find it easier to paint grass in watercolour. The other colours used in the painting make it pop, helping it to breathe and enhancing its life. I found it tough to make that path look like a path and not a boring strip of brown in the centre. I wanted it to look like something that had been made by being walked on, not something that had been put there by the local council. I don’t know if I succeeded in my endeavour, but I also don’t mind!
The blue in the middle? Now that’s a story. I did several paintings that featured something just like that in 2021 and it was precisely because of that part of the piece that I enjoyed them so much. It evoked a feeling of moving towards something from deep down within me. It feels strange to say that I did a painting fairly similar to this one in 2021 that’s since been painted over due to looking like a woodland scene in the midst of an alien invasion. I didn’t have the skills or the patience to do what I recently completed. Also, in 2021, I did an autumnal woodland scene that I’m still very proud of now. In both this painting and the autumnal one I feel the middle blue part is where the heart of them both lie. But where do these paths go? Who knows? Who cares? The journey is personal after all.
But to where does it lead? Only you can know that…
Taking this back to the date of completion, why is that of significance besides paying off my debt? Well, as I sat adding the final details, after having a good cry, it hit me that this painting is my pathway to a life of being free. I didn’t choose for this painting to coincide with such an important day, I didn’t even think I would care so much until I did. This painting was me on the home straight out of financial hell and all of the implications that went with it. In a way it feels like a fitting tribute to a hard journey. Remember the autumnal scene I mentioned in the previous paragraph? When I reflect on it I realise that the completion of that painting was the way in and this painting is the way out. A whole journey complete.
No, this painting isn’t my best piece. It’s not my flashiest. It’s not my fanciest. BUT it’s of huge significance to me. On a personal level its importance cannot be overstated. It’s been a rough time getting out of debt, but I made it. This painting, without ever being intended to, commemorates that.
Thank you for reading this.
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