Fear of mucking up

Last weekend I did a bit of playful painting on two 5x7 inch canvases. They already had the beginnings of paintings on them that I didn't like, so I worked over the top. I like how the previous layers still come through to a certain extent, adding interest to the paint surface.

The last version of what was on them sat there for a week or two because I didn't like them and decided not to go on with them. Ironically these have sat for a week untouched because I like them too much. I'm scared to work into them and muck them up!!

I've done a foam print version of each, in the hope that it will let me be more playful when I get back to the canvas with paint. I have the idea down on paper now in the foam print, and can do as many different version s as I like working over the prints. It means I don't have to be so tied to that idea when I start painting, I can let it evolve the way it wants to.

I'd love to hear any tips or tricks you use to get around that fear.

new lino prints for cards and a walk at the beach

Here are the little lino prints I carved in the christmas holidays, both are based on paintings I did last year - I love that, when ideas hop from one medium to another.

I had a lovely walk at the beach on Friday evening, glorious wet season clouds!!
And I remembered to take my camera, here are a couple of photos.

One more week of school holidays to go and then back to more normal routines, which is good and bad!! I am looking forward to having my Friday mornings back for painting without interruption!!

Welcome 2015!

The monsoon is here at last, rain has been steadily pouring through the night and morning, frogs are croaking the pool and wheelbarrow are overflowing. Apparently we've had 140mm so far, approx 6 inches of rain. We're under a blanket of thick cloud, this morning it was like waking up in a kind of twilight. The temperature is 24 (centigrade) instead of 34, what a relief!

It's a lovely day to be at home chiseling a lino. This year I want to focus more on art, it's so easy to be sidetracked by demands of work and family...all those chores are not going away, but I can put half an hour of art first rather than doing all the other stuff and seeing if I have the energy for art at the end... I'll be keeping a time diary for a little while to see where I can squeeze more art in!

I'm almost at the end of my two weeks holiday, I've been walking at the beach as always and doing some quick sketches. I've also done a couple of new lino-cuts for cards which I hope to print before next week. Too much of the holiday has been spent at the shops - food shopping, last minute xmas shopping, and then the sales... To balance this out there's been copious amounts of tea drinking and having a little lie down with a good book. I'm reading 'The Silkworm' by Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling) a murder mystery and just loving it.

So I hope you're having a lovely day to start the new year, and hope 2015 is a year of kindness and creativity for us all.