Thoughts from a home studio…
- Blockedby AIRBLOGWaiting for scan results has me creatively blocked. In fact I don’t seem to be able to settle to much of anything at the moment – even tasks that have a hard and important deadline – like submitting accounts to Companies House! I want to be in the studio but there’s no sense of focus and I can’t afford to simply faff about. I keep hearing that my work is beautiful, which is lovely – of course it is. Even better, I have recently been told by two people (who have no connection to each other) that the reason they …
- Why art? Why now?by AIRBLOGThe world really doesn’t need another mediocre painting, right? Shouldn’t I just get a ‘proper’ job and not be such a financial burden on my partner? I have been asked these rather blunt, and less than kind questions, on more than one occasion. I have also asked them of myself. So why art, and why now? In 2020, just as the UK was going into its first COVID lockdown, I was getting changed in the bathroom and I noticed a small dent in my left breast. I’d just read a newspaper article about a woman who had discovered she had …
- The best of intentionsby AIRBLOGAn intention can offer a place to begin and can help guide decisions along the way, but there usually comes a time when a painting starts to take on a life of its own, when it seems to be asking for moves that are counter to the original intention. At that point it is important to listen because from then on the work is a dialogue. When the painting stops demanding change it is finished. For me this is the greatest point of uncertainty, when the inner critic with her art school training and knowledge of so-called rules and principles …
- FALLING IN LOVE – are you ready for the jolt?by AIRBLOGLast week I had the privilege of watching three people fall in love. I was stewarding at a group exhibition. The walls and plinths were covered with works from more than eighty artists at different stages of their creative journeys. In the morning two women who were clearly close friends came into the gallery. They were immediately drawn to a vibrant, strikingly coloured, landscape painting from an accomplished artist which depicted a scene they both recognized. You could tell by their comments, “That’s Covehithe!” “That IS Covehithe!” that the piece resonated strongly. In an instant it had evoked memories of …
- TO PLAN OR NOT TO PLAN… harnessing the creative impulseby AIRBLOG“Be more considered.” “Oh, just let rip!” The two competing impulses that can result in creative dithering, if not complete paralysis. Artists are often advised to create work that is recognizably theirs. Galleries love consistency – it makes the job of selling your work easier, apparently. Collectors also prefer it if you keep your work within a particular groove – they fell in love with one of your paintings and they’d like more of the same please. When an artist changes ‘style’ it can be disconcerting – for others. So here’s the conundrum. Artists often need to sell their work …
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- THE ARTIST IN US ALL – what do they eat?by AIRBLOGPreviously, I wrote that anyone can be an artist if they want it enough. I know this to be true because, for more than a decade, I had the privilege of helping some inspirational groups of home-ed students to explore their creativity. Typically, these young people had been brought to my workshops by a parent or guardian, so I was usually met with varying degrees of enthusiasm—initially. After a few sessions, I would begin to observe a change. Those who had at first resisted encouragement, insisting they couldn’t draw or hated art, gradually lost their frowns and instead began to …
- ANYONE CAN BE AN ARTIST – yes, even youby AIRBLOGShall we start by opening that beautiful can of worms? Yes, anyone can be an artist, if they want it enough. But, will they be a good artist? Well, define good. I tend to agree with Brian Rutenberg – if an artist’s work is still being looked at, bought and sold, twenty years after its creation, the artist is/was good. Time is the only semi-reliable judge of quality, and don’t let the critics (or anyone else for that matter) tell you otherwise. Semi-reliable because, of course, there is always chance to consider – the work has to survive in some …