It's so frustrating at the moment, I'm itching to get into some serious work at the studio but it seems like events are conspiring against me for the last 7 days. Every time I plan to have a lengthy visit to the studio something important crops up. I've been in for 3 hours on Monday and 2 hours today but I need a full 5-7 hours to make headway in my latest paintings. I'm not going to be able to make it in tomorrow but will get a few hours on Friday, fingers crossed.
If only there was some funding available to allow me to get on with my painting and relieve the worry of work and earning money. Life after university is definately different and it's taking some getting used to, having to juggle many committments at the same time is proving extremely tiring.
In my 2 hours today I stretched some linen onto a stretcher frame. I know it shouldn't take that long but I still struggle when stretching linen. It only wants to stretch one way and when it is all stapled it decides to relax a little more and I basically have to take most of the staples out and tighten even more. I don't get this problem with cotton duck, it is so much easier to stretch. Anyway I finally managed to stretch one of the stretcher frames with another still to do.
Yesterday I was with my son (2 years old) whilst he was doing some painting. I gave him some blank greetings cards and asked him to do some paintings on them. The idea is to use them as thank you cards for friends and family who sent him his birthday presents last week. I thought it was going to be carnage but was amazed, he took each one seperately and told me for each one what he was going to paint, they were all obviously Thomas the tank engine orientated but i was fascinated by the simplicity in his painting, he picked a colour/colours with a quick drag and then a quick unlaboured twizzle with the brush gave some beautiful brushtrokes that I only wish that I could translate into my paintings. I was really proud that he was enjoying the act of painting for what it was without a worry for what it looked like.
A lesson for us all could be taken from that maybe?
