I stopped listening to music in the studio and now I hear the paint
For years I had to have something on, podcasts, playlists, the radio, whatever. Fill the silence. I thought it helped me concentrate.
Then about three months ago my headphones broke and I was too lazy to replace them, so I just worked without. First week felt naked, like something was missing. Second week I started noticing the sound of the brush. That little wet drag across the panel, the tick of the ferrule against the easel, the way linseed oil makes a certain quiet suction sound when you wipe a brush on a rag.
Now I can't go back. The silence isn't empty, it's full of information about what I'm doing. I hear when I'm forcing the paint versus letting it glide. I hear hesitation in the pause before a stroke.
My husband thinks I've become a monk. Maybe. But I've been painting better these three months than I have in years, and I think part of it is just finally listening.
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i went through this exact thing during covid. not because my headphones broke, just because i got sick of my own playlists one day and never put one back on.
that drag sound you're talking about, when i first really noticed it, i realized i'd been painting for years without ever actually hearing the paint move. wild how much time you can spend doing something and miss the whole physical conversation with it.
i still put music on sometimes when i'm doing prep work or stretching canvas. but the actual making part? silence now. feels wrong otherwise.
Yes, this is a very nice thing you are describing. In Mithila painting also we have this, the sound of the brush on the paper is different when the pigment is too dry or too wet. My mother she could tell by the sound only if I was doing it right or wrong. It is a kind of listening also, not just seeing.
I am glad you found it. 🙏
That's beautiful. Your mother knowing by sound alone, that's a real kind of attention, the kind you can't fake. I love that. There's something about a tradition where the senses all work together like that, where listening is part of making. Merci for sharing that. 🙏
Exactly. Prep work is different, I still have the radio on for stretching and toning. But the painting itself... it's like the sound is part of the information now. You're right about the physical conversation. I didn't know I was missing it until I heard it.