Lots and lots of little paintings

 Since the xmas craft fair at the end of November I have tried to make time for painting every Sunday morning, even if it's only for an hour or so. I work small - on 4x4 inch canvas boards, now and again expanding onto 5x7, which feels huge in comparison. Over the 4 months - December through March - I've done a lot of little paintings.... they are all painted at my verandah table at home. When I'm out walking I often take (bad) photos or do little sketches that I use for inspiration for the paintings, but I haven't been brave enough to paint outdoors.

So a bunch of the paintings are of the place where I sit when I go for my walk at the beach. The view out to sea across the rocky shore off sunset park at Nightcliff - it's wonderful to see storm clouds and dramatic skies at this time of year,  the wet season, and I've tried to capture some of that, the same view in different weather.

A couple of the paintings are of sunset park, the shady trees and glise of the sea beyond, and people enjoying it someone reading, someone walking their dog.

A Nightcliff landmark is the jetty, and It has made an appearance in a couple of paintings!

Another group of paintings are still life's, which I do paint from life - a twig of gumtree flowers I picked up at the park, a new pot plant...

The best painting sessions have been when I knew what I wanted to paint, if I don't have a clear idea the painting doesn't go well. That seems to be the opposite of the nugget of wisdom about not waiting for inspiration to strike, to just get on with it.

I feel like this wave of painting is coming to an end - perhaps it's the change of season. The dry season is approaching, I feel the urge to get out walking more often and get back into the garden. These things will 'fill the well' and inspire the next wave of painting. (The idea of filling the well is from Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way.) 

Also the first craft fair of the year is coming up at the beginning of May, so I need to get prepared for that. I feel very lucky that these events can go ahead almost as normal in Darwin, while so many other parts of the world are still in lockdown. For those in the northern hemisphere I hope that spring and the easing of restrictions is bringing a little joy :)

The thing that made me do lifebook this year!

 I've taken lifebook before in 2017 and 2018 and I enjoyed it, but also missed a lot of classes, I probably only did a third of what was on offer, and felt that it was aimed at someone with less experience than me... I've been paintin and drawing pretty consistently for the last 40 years!

But back in late November I think, there were some taster lessons that ran for 2 weeks. It's a busy time of year so I only watched 4 of the short classes and only attempted 2 of them. 

One was this wonderful art journalling lesson with Pia Rom - combining paint, collage and words to find a story. It felt like such an interesting and easy way to build an image. (By easy I think I mean sidestepping the inner critic) It seemed to open doors in my mind for how I might approach artmaking and journalling. That one lesson convinced me to try lifebook again, that there are new things there for me to learn and new inspiration.

Do take a look @piaromsart on instagram, her journal pages are stunning and now she's playing with little clay figures too.... looking forward to doing her full lifebook lesson!

Happy new year and Lifebook 2021

 I have treated myself to the online art and wellbeing course Lifebook for this year. I have tried it befor in 2017 and 2018, and enjoyed being introduced to so many different artists/teachers and new approaches and techniques. I also remember being overwhelmed by so many lessons, usually 2 a week (plus other bonus material) there can be hours of video which I don't have enough time for. So I'm doing it my way, as much as I can manage on a smaller scale than they suggest - I'm doing mine in an A5 journal , not loose sheets to be bound at the end. Also I'm not taking part in the facebook group, I don't enjoy facebook (to put it mildly) and don't want to waste time there or be too overwhelmed or influenced by other people's work.

Here's my first piece for the year! A warm up, I followed the instructions fairly closely and enjoyed the layering, stencilling and markmaking. It includes my word of the year - renaissance- along with the dictionary meaning "cultural or artistic revival." That's what I'm really hoping for this year, after beibg so focused on the kids finishing school for the last couple of years, now it's my turn!!

The other week one lesson was called Goddess of Light, I didn't watch all the videos for this one but used it as inspiration, a jumping off point for this journal page which is still in progress. Both these lessons were with Tamara Laporte. (You can find out more about lifebook at her website willowing.org or Instagram @willowing). I will skip week 2 for now as the week 3 lessons will be out on Tuesday.

Happy new year and best wishes to you, take care of yourselves especially those back in lockdown, hoping things improve as the year goes on and vaccines are rolled out.