This article is by Keith Bond, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews.  You should submit an article and share your views as a guest author by clicking here.

Countless times I have come across a scene in the landscape and thought, �I would love to paint that.�  Yet, for whatever reason I didn�t paint or photograph the scene.  Maybe I had to be somewhere.  Maybe I didn�t have my stuff with me.  Perhaps I was busy painting another view in the other direction.  Maybe it was something else.  But the short of it is, I was captivated by a scene.  It touched me.  But I didn�t paint it. 

I have often come back later to that location and found nothing there to excite or entice me.  The moment was gone forever.  It just wasn�t the same the next time.

In fact, it is never the same.  Even if the light, weather, time of day and year were all the same; it still wouldn�t be the same.  Even if I came back the very next day at the same time, with yesterday�s memory fresh in my mind, it still wouldn�t be the same. 

This is partially because my mood may be different.  My frame of mind would not be quite the same.  The thoughts I had been having and the events of the day and so many other variables would all combine to contribute to how I respond to a scene.

Maybe it is something else.  Maybe the cosmos is out to play tricks on me.  Who knows.  But one thing is for certain.  Each idea is unique and comes along only once.  When it is gone it shall never return.  Similar ideas will certainly come, but not the exact same one.  Inspiration waits for no one. 

So, what shall be done?  Shall we fret about it?

I used to.  But no longer.  I have realized that there are always more ideas around the corner.  In fact, I could spend three lifetimes painting from the photos and sketches I have in my studio and never come close to doing everything.  Yet I still go out in search of more ideas.  I still return with easel and paints in hand to the great outdoors to paint en plein air.  I still carry my camera with me and take hundreds of photos.

There are so many ideas out there, I will never get to them all.  So, I don�t worry if I miss one � or even a hundred.  I glory in the opportunity to have witnessed the scenes.  They add to my cumulative experiences.  They further shape me. 

And somewhere down the road, a memory may surface as I am working on some other painting.  And in that hour, that experience from years past will make an impression and influence the current painting on the easel.  In reality, that lost opportunity was not really lost after all.  It was only delayed and manifest in ways not anticipated.

Sometimes those missed opportunities are planted as seeds in my creative greenhouse.  Some time may pass; months; even years.  But that seed will sprout a new idea much better than the original.  It is worth the wait.

I guess my advice to you is to not fret over the inability to create every idea or inspiration.  Enjoy life.  Enjoy the work you can get to.  Cherish the opportunity to create.  All of those other ideas that you have shelved may still influence future work.  Even if you never get to create the original idea you once had.  It doesn�t really matter as long as you still find new ideas to get excited about. 

Sure, sometimes we all hit a creative block and can�t seem to gain any inspiration at all.  This article won�t address that issue.  Except to say that if you will persevere, the ideas will eventually come flooding back.  And they will flood to overflowing.  You won�t be able to capture them all. 

All we can ever really do is create the best current idea from the flood that may be about us.  Don�t settle for a lesser idea because you are second guessing things.  When you find 5 or 6 or 8 ideas coming all at once, pick the very best one and do your best with it.  Don�t worry about the other 7.  And if for whatever reason you missed the opportunity you considered the best, don�t fret.  Choose the very next best idea and run with it.  For it is now the best choice you have.

Best Wishes,

Keith Bond