There’s a lot I really like about this painting. It was always going to win my heart just by virtue of the subject matter, but there are a number of lessons I learned while painting this that will help me as I move forward. So I owe this ducky a small debt of gratitude. Lesson … More Thanks, Rubber Ducky.
July means school holidays and birthdays in my household. Which, by default, means taking bite-sized snatches of painting time between not such bite-sized pieces of cake. To offset the parental guilt of knowingly placing children into sugar-comas, I like to ensure there is the healthy option of cut-up fruit and plain (okay, lightly salted) popcorn readily … More Party’s over, folks.
Growing up, I went through my rebellious phase early. But by the time I was seven, I’d stopped ditching classes to ride other people’s bikes behind the school sheds. I was on the straight and narrow. Of course, some habits were hard to break. My biggest weakness was the thrill of lighting matches. When I found … More Perfect Match: Old habits die hard.
Last week I painted a pumpkin and when I finished it, I didn’t feel satisfaction so much as relief. Perhaps it was the adjustment to painting something larger than 10cm x 10cm that fatigued me. I began optimistically enough, but the process was very interrupted and the painting carried on sporadically over a few days. … More Lessons from an Introverted Pumpkin
I made some rather heady, rash choices in the green grocer’s the other day because instead of concentrating, I was contemplating my next painting as I shopped. I am now facing the awkward consequences of buying fresh produce based purely on shape or colour, rather than my need of them for the week’s menu. So … More Mixing your vegetables: The seedy underbelly of fresh produce.
This has been a week of sick children and poor head-space. So I’m just going to put out what I’ve worked on and leave it at that. No pretty stories, no laboured analogies, not even a process shot to tease you with. I’m banking on a picture telling at least 150 words, so here’s two … More Short but sweet. A description of this post – not my week.
Once upon an August in 2016, I discovered that for someone who hadn’t actually taken up painting, I was pretty flush with canvases. The only solution to this problem seemed to be to actually take up painting. So, I did. I’m not sure I expressly stated this in my initial post, but I intend to first use up … More How small is too small? Or, size does matter.
I’d hoped to use that title when I sold my first painting – bless my humble cotton socks – but no. Instead the ‘it’ that was bound to happen eventually was being an over-confident ass and paying the price for it [insert pained look of anguish here]. Here’s what happened: Meet my deliciously dinged-up watering can: If you’ve … More It was bound to happen eventually.
Today marks six months since I began my superbly ordinary experiment of Getting My Art Into Gear. Here’s some of what I’ve learned so far: It’s difficult to motivate yourself to paint a brilliant piece of art, but it’s brilliantly motivating to just choose to paint and see what comes of it. Rather than aiming for perfection, I aim for … More Practice makes Progress
extra | ordinary 