"Paint Me"
8x10, oil/panel
With two degrees in English Literature, I should be able to title my paintings in a snap. Not so. I've found that the more prolific you are as a painter, the more prone you are to writer's block.
When I first started out, I pored through Shakespeare or the Bible - two good sources of titles for writers of fiction and non-fiction - for clever phrases such as "Time's Thievish Progress." (I didn't use that one.) But when I really started to paint, that is, to paint every day, I just didn't have time enough. I began to rely on titles that indicated the subject. "Jeffries Peak, Winter Storm."
This worked well enough, but when I began to paint the same subject over and over, I had to resort to numbers. "Jeffries Peak, #5" and so on. The problem with this method was I couldn't always remember which painting was #55 and which was #56. I quickly discovered the value of assigning paintings a serial number and keeping a photographic record.
I've even tried popular music. The Grateful Dead had some great lyrics, and if you look long enough, you can usually find something appropriate, such as "Across the Lazy River." If you're clever, you might even discover that the title may invest extra meaning, depending on what the song is about. This all depends on your audience, of course. Someone born after 1970 may not understand "Strawberry Fields." (But then, I'm not sure I do, either.)
The best titles, though, always seem to come from deep within and evoke a mood. It's the same with poetry - sometimes the words just come. If you can hold off from trying to name a piece right away and spend some quiet time with it, a title will well up like a reliable spring.
PS The boat above said to me, "Paint Me," and the rest is history.
