30 Day Image Prompt Competition

Day 29 Prompt 1 - Paint

         It was hard being a successful artist. People expected you to just create something on a blank canvas at a click of the fingers. They didn’t understand that you had to have something to kick the imagination. An object, a sentence, a word, a scent – something simple, something complicated. Anything could trigger her muse and lead her to create pictures that people wowed over.
         Anything. Just as nothing could make her muse stay hidden away. Like it was doing now. Frustration beat down upon her as she stared at the paint cans laid out before her. Fifteen cans of various colours and shades. Some were premixed, others were shades created by her own imagination. Hard fought results of mixing one colour with another, adding a splash of white, a touch of red, stirring it around and around until the right colour stood before her.
         Her favourite brush lay across the tins, its wooden body splashed with paint drops of a variety of colours. Rich green paint coated its base around the brush, evidence of the last colour she had used. Oh, how productive that session had been, picturing the large mural she had finished last week. She had spent hours creating a forest scene, complete with wildlife hiding amongst the bushes, for a wildlife enthusiast. It had been hard work yet the finished product had been so worth the effort. The client had spent over two hours on the telephone gushing over how wonderful the mural was.
         Today, however, was a different story. Today, nothing came to mind and she had an important commission to do. Possibly one of the most important commissions she had ever had. She looked around her studio, seeking that one thing that would kick start her muse. It had to be here somewhere.
         She looked back at the paints. Her eyes lingered on the soft yellow that she had created. Sunshine? She wondered. Maybe. The rich, lush green could represent grass, a field or a plain or even a hill on a summer’s day. What about the sky? Problem there. She was lacking a tin of blue paint. She studied the paints again. How could she be missing a blue when it was such a key colour in any painting.
         Ah, ha, there was the answer. She had used the remnants of the blue to mix with some orange to create a bright green. She would have to go to the store to get another tin before she started work on this latest project, whatever it would be.
         “Mom? Are you done yet?”
         The little voice came floating up the steps to her studio. She could picture the speaker standing at the foot of the stairs whilst she stood at the foot of the stairs. “Not yet,” she called back down. “I need some more paint.”
         “Great. Can I come with you to choose the colour?”
         “Sure you can. Go and get your coat on and I’ll be down in a minute.” She looked back at the paints, trying to see if her muse had returned. No, nothing yet. This was going to be a difficult commission.
         At the bottom of the stairs, her seven year old daughter was waiting for her. Dressed in her usual jeans and t-shirt she watched as her mother descended the stairs.
         “Is it ready, yet?” she asked, hopping from one foot to the another.
         “Not yet. I told you, these things take time,” she replied, giving her daughter a hug when she reached the bottom. “Come on.”

         The paint store was quiet which suited her mood. She stood in the paint isle, looking at all of the blue shades ranging from the palest, lightest blue to a near black evening colour. None of the colours stimulated her and she was starting to panic.
         “Mommy, look, it’s like a rainbow,” her daughter stated as she stood close to her mother, next to the mixing cart with its tester cards full of the full range of colours.
         Obligingly, she looked down at the cards her daughter was pointing at. As she saw the spread of colours she felt her muse kick-start into life. Picking up the royal blue shade she wanted, her mind started to picture the vast portrait that she would be painting. Sometimes, all you needed was the smallest of things to trigger something major, she thought as they headed towards the check-ins before heady back to the farmhouse.