New work

I am working on new stuff and painting over old stuff. I love painting over old stuff! The underlying paint make for some surprising marks that show through to the new work.

But first, a panoramic view of the studio!

Panoramic view of the studio

This one has cows underneath it!True story!

Acrylic on canvas

Acrylic on canvas

This also has cows underneath the new surface( NOT as mermaids!)

I reworked this and like it now

Oil on drafting film

This is a new project....shhhhhhhhhhh

oil on drafting film

So, now just working away and trawling the hardware store, looking at using new tools to create some excitement in my painting. 

I bought a sander a few months ago and it has been a great new tool. I sand back what I don't like or the whole things, sometimes, and start again. 

The dogs hate the noise. 

I converted my studio desk into a standing desk. My ratio of internet surfing to painting has changed quite radically! 

For those of you wondering how the tidying up is going...splendidly! I even had a garden tidy! I thanked all the broken benches, chairs, ornaments trellises, pots (etc etc) for all their hard work, loaded up the trailer and off it went to the dump.

Still working in baby steps and staying far away from the studio and photo's, but each day I do some small category(  yesterday was garden, today is tupperware and plastics!) and it makes me feel so much better. 

The theory of creativity and space

So, this is my theory of creativity and space.

If there is too much crap around, the space and my life crowded with rubbish, STUFF accumulated on every surface, in every drawer, then there is no place for creativity to expand.

Problem: I am a sentimental pack rat. I attribute emotional connection to objects. For example.If my mother even so much as TOUCHED an object, I cannot throw it away because that object reminds me of her and throwing it away would akin to throwing something of her away. Yes, I am aware of the all -kinds- of -crazy that the preceding sentence sounds like, but that is what I am and how I exist. Another example.I have 6 years worth  of my kids art (ages 1-7) . No, none of it is even remotely good and yet it takes up a 4 drawer unit.The only good that unit might do is house some mice, for I have not looked in those drawers in 4 years. But there it sits, taking up space and my warped logic says" If you throw out those pictures, you are throwing away their childhood". See?! How am I supposed to throw stuff away with that kind of voice talking to me all the time?!

So, back to the theory. I have noticed that when I tidy up, throw stuff away and get organised, my mind quietens down,  I can think clearly and I can create and think creatively. All the STUFF that I own bogs me down in the past. So, I have been going through the drawers of my life, both physical and emotional, looking at what is accumulated, keeping some but throwing a lot away. When there is space in my head, my creativity flexes its muscles and starts to fill the spaces.

It's slow going but very cathartic. I spend a little time decluttering the house then toddle off to the studio. What happens after the cleanse is interesting. I just paint and solve painting problems with greater ease and the work becomes more interesting.

I have taken 3 carloads of stuff to the charity shop this week. My sense of triumph as I drive away, unburdened, is unexpectedly fabulous.

You will notice, dear reader, that I have yet to mention ANYTHING about a studio clean up. I know, I know. It will be the hardest one to do, so I am leaving it till last.  It's ok, the book said leave the hardest till last!

The zen of a rock on the beach.

After tidying up the pantry! 

Whilst someone else was tidying up the garden!

So the painting starts again

After a brief hiatus of 2 weeks doing nothing and being totally useless following my Exhibition, I have begun painting again. It has, however, coincided with a great need to get rid of clutter. I have worked out that in order to create, I need mental space and the physical space in my studio and home is filled to the brim with STUFF. I am a pack rat! If I continue like this I shall end up on television as some hag with a collection of mental illnesses relating to hoarding.  Cue an intervention from the universe by way of an Instagram friend ( Thanks Angela!) who started posting photos of her decluttering prowess . She told me she had read a book oddly titled "The Gentle Magic of tidying up" and it offered a foolproof ( it needs to be because I have a t-shirt that says I am a fool and it needs to go) system of decluttering and then remaining decluttered. Sell me your magic potion, let me plant those magic beans!!!!! I want! So, I badgered the book out of the library and got reading. I sat up one night and read the whole darned thing. It was 1 am when I closed the book and I wanted to start! I got up and then got straight back into bed because a) it's the middle of winter and damned cold and b) starting at 1 am will not please the rest of the household!We've been down that road before with my midnight antics. It was not well received.
Next morning, I began. I cleaned out my chest of drawers. Once I had done that, I came into the studio and began to paint, unfettered, mind clear, a spring in my step.

If that's what just one set of drawers does for me, by the time I make it to the next exhibition I shall be living in a shell of a house, partially naked with clear surfaces everywhere and some very nervous family members!

So that's my plan. Slowly but surely, I shall declutter my house and then, after an hour of asking myself if object make me sparkle or thanking them for their use and discarding them, I shall wander into the studio and throw some paint around. For the record, the studio is going to be next on the list. I have a shitload of crap ( the technical term, I believe) stuffed under the big table on which I store even more crap and varnish paintings. I think I shall singlehandedly refurnish the Hospice Opshop!

A 30 x 30 cm study

Working on the bigger painting

detail of a another painting finished today