Feeling the fear and diving in anyway

Stephanie Levy (in her course  'Creative Courage') talks about feeling the fear ... diving in anyway... and transforming... through courage.  She takes you through exercises to help you release your fear... whatever it is that is holding you back from moving forward in your creative exploration.

In a book by Susan Jeffers she says, feel the fear and do it anyway!

Courage is acting in spite of fear! ... Mark Twain

With all the positive energy and motivation gained through this course of Stephanie I slowly started acting on overcoming my fear for painting on my own...  I've been taking a wonderful art class for 2 years.  The past year has been a hectic one as we moved house and my day job become extremely exhausting. Therefor I had to let go of my art class, but promised myself I would still paint... which turned out to not happen... with always an excuse of being tired or not having enough time to relax and do it... but in the end I realized I was dealing with the fear of not being able to paint outside the 'secureness' of my art class.

A few things happened... at the very beginning of this year I learned about the Creative Courage e-course, which I experienced with great joy! I also had some time free from work to join 2 friends that paint together for a few hours on a Friday afternoon ... this was an environment filled with friendliness and openness to just be yourself... there I started my very first painting... doing it totally on my own!  Yippee!!
Then came my three week holiday and I had some more time to focus on painting...

The images above is parts of this very first painting ... not yet finished, but it is filling me with such joy... to know that I am trying...

I've learned in this course that only through continuous doing and exploring will you eventually get closer and closer to your deepest creative wishes!  "Give yourself many chances ... as many as it takes" (e-course)... "Overcome fear by action" ... "Start with simple steps towards your creative dreams"...

So this is where I am ... finding my path despite of the fear of thinking... no, I will not be able to do it... to keep my eye on my creative dreams and just keep on trying small steps towards it!

This painting that I'm busying doing is a painting from a coaster I saw at my mother-in-law's house - it is an image of Nel Whatmore.  I loved the picture on the coaster and as my art teacher encouraged us to do paintings of ones that we like... as to get practice painting in ways you like... this is what I'm now doing...
I love the looseness of this painting... and wanted to try and see if I could get it right.

When I googled Nel Whatmore, it was lovely to see her other work and how active she is!  As I love all creativity it was also wonderful to see that she also does quilting, as well as write poems!