Creative flow is a funny animal. Essentially : sometimes it “flows” and sometimes it doesn’t. Additionally, just because a certain idea isn’t flowing now doesn't mean it will always be that way in the future.
Enter scene : Me vs. Rock Lobsters.
3-4 years ago, it seemed like every other person I spoke to suggested I paint a rock lobster. I’d painted plenty of Maine Lobsters [ see here, and here, and here, and here…. ], so why not extend my love of crustaceans to their cousin?
Maybe it was a case of “no one tells me what to do” flaring up, who knows. I just couldn’t get excited about painting them. There was no flow. Other crustaceans stole my creative heart in the meantime, like blue crabs & fiddler crabs.
THEN recently, I was searching The Google for some inspiration (yes, I did just refer to it as “The Google”, and I will continue to do so because it makes me smile for 5 minutes every time I do). I started to realize that rock lobsters exist in a variety of colors & patterns. They aren’t just armless “regular lobsters”. They’re GORGEOUS intricately textured graceful underwater painted-robots. Ta-da! I found my creative flow with the once dreaded rock lobster.