A gentle breeze caresses your cheek, a soft warm light blankets the surrounding landscape. You carefully erect your snappy new French easel and squeeze out a bead of luscious fresh paint on to your palette. You almost vibrate with anticipation for the ultimate creative flash of the brush that will confirm to you, yourself, and all those around you, the ultimate genius you know resides inside your bones. Ah yes! You can dream, can?t you? In the end that is what we do as artists. We weave dreams for ourselves and possibly for others. The best rationale for spending a week or month roaming the back alleys of some far flung European haunt or trudging the steep foot paths of the Rocky Mountains hoping to find that ultimate painting inspiration is simply that you can. You feel you must do this. In practical terms a practical painter needs do no more than sit up in bed and start doodling away. But why? The whole world is your oyster. It is best fresh and raw. Get out of that comfortable bed, there is magic out there to be found.

It is the absolute duty of any artist worth their salt to capture that magic however they can and share it with others. There are precious few striving artists, amateur or professional, in this world and our importance can not be overstated. Artists remind a brutal world of the most noble of human ideals and intentions. The hope, inspiration, romance, indeed the very ideals of our age, will be found and communicated to the present and future by some lowly confused scribbler or scribe. Someone who has been given or taken for themselves the luxury of wandering about both physically and mentally, pursuing humanity?s ultimate visions and ideals.

So get out there. Even if you do not answer the burning questions of our time, it sure beats flipping burgers. Anyone with a creative itch will find self satisfaction in giving it a scratch. Who knows, you may discover there is much more creative magic inside yourself, and around you than you ever dreamed possible.

Going out on location and painting away from your usual day to day distractions will allow you to focus and indulge your more creative philosophical aspirations and desires. You will feel the emotion of an explorer crossing an unknown sea with tangible anticipation of what awaits on the other side. The creative journey in itself may be, and is often reward enough, the fruits of your creative endeavors may reward others in ways you cannot possibly know.

When you set up to paint on location, the light will constantly change, egging you on to quickly capture the scene before it dissolves into yet another image of visual intrigue or delight. In a similar manner, your own creative interest itself will change and morph with your surroundings to open up new paths for your creativity
and expression.

Join Mike Svob for a trip to France from June 4th to 19th, 2005 and experience the wonders of painting in the outdoors - in France! To find out about this trip please visit Mike Sob website at www.mikesvob.com or visit the Opus Community Workshops & Classes database at www.opusframing.com/library/classes