Finding time for my art in the past few weeks has been a challenge with so many other demands created by the season. Summer is upon us although you wouldn’t know to step outside today. Next weekend with be warm again with another 30 degree day forecast. Tasmania; four seasons in one day!! I have a large raspberry hedge which is producing an abundence of luscious fruit. But of course that means time spent jam making not art making. The garden needs time too as the weeds are as prolific or more so than the other plants.
I have worked further on my floral series in an attempt to increase the abstraction. I have three ‘waiting in the wings’. I want them to only slightly resemble flowers but to be joyful, colourful and full of the energy of nature. Might be getting somewhere with this one. It is hard because there are so many parts of these paintings that I like which I could so easily lose with one swipe of the silicon wedge I use to apply the paint. Lots of finger painting there as well I might add.
This is its mate in a more representational phase
I collected two paintings from my display at the Rosny Doctors Surgery. They hadn’t sold but no wonder as the staff there hadn’t put the labels I provided on the wall. No one would know they were for sale. I replaced them with two others. On bringing them home and comparing them to two others in the same series which weren’t working to my satisfaction, I could see a way forward with these. May not yet be finished but showing promise in my mind.
Flourish with red
I am never happier that when I am trying out something new or experimenting with different colours, approaches or subjects. I attempted a series of 4, 30 square works using a warm colour palette and bringing organic geometric shapes into the mix similar to this one done six months ago.
These have had 11 layers of paint but not going where I would like. Maybe by next week I will resolve them. I am thinking that working in this size is not suiting me now. We’ll see!!??!!
My main success this week has been with Lost in a wave, the latest one in my Oceans series. This is larger, at 60cm square and I hope will be one of my entries in the Waterways exhibition at the Long Gallery in February. I need to mount it on a cradled board with its two mates and see how they look on the wall.
Lost in a wave
Today I decided to rework two older works on board. Just because I can. They were quite nice as they were but thought I would add to them in a random way, disrupt the surface and see where it would take me. They have had two previous incarnations I might add.
This is how they look now. Regrets? I have a few.
I received a new book on the subject of colour. I bought this on a friend’s recommendation with the view to learning more about colour and colour combinations. It by David Hornung and titled Colour-A workshop for artists and designers. All I need now is some self discipline and free time to experiment. I finish with a some thoughts from Nicholas Wilton, a well know artist and teacher.
People are all so different, and everyone will see and feel different things when they experience your Art. I believe we make our best Art when we are free of any mental restrictions. The day I decided to give up caring what people might or might not feel when they see my Art, was the day my Art took a big step forward.It is helpful to realize that there is far more value found in the making of your Art than others’ reactions once it is made
