I should imagine lots of artists will be thinking about 2023 now. How things went, what could have gone better, what to do next…
I can honestly say that I’ve had a good year. I’ve done a lot of travelling, a lot of socialising, read 76 books ( which I log on Goodreads) and had the huge achievement of going to the theatre and ballet on my own !
Workwise, I was halfway through the church commission. It felt like I was working every waking hour making those paper fish – exhausting, beyond tedious. frustrating … but seeing them all spread out in Chester Cathedral was exhilarating.
From the Cathedral, the installation was then displayed in a local church for a while before heading off on its travels. This should happen early next year sometime.
It was a good experience, great to be paid for it and it certainly kept me going for a while.
I’m keeping an open mind whether I will do another one. There are lots of plusses and minuses to it all, apart from the enormous amount of work involved.
The end of the year has seen me going in what seems to be a totally different direction, in that I’m painting again.
I’ve always painted, on and off, so it really isn’t that much of a change. I do it almost as a sideline though as I find it peaceful and relaxing. I don’t always post about it though, which is something I’ll have to rectify next year.
One of the speakers at an a-n seminar I went to once, criticised artists using social media for constantly posting about work. We should show ourselves as more rounded – life alongside our artwork. I’ve pretty much stuck to that rule , though now I’m wondering if I should post at least once a week about my work?
In my last post I mentioned open exhibitions. I hadn’t been a fan of these in the past, but I’m now finding that they help me focus. I’ve produced quite a lot of work in the last few months. Whether its shown or not is another matter, but the work is now there for me to contemplate.
I’ll be showing a small work in the postcard exhibition at Sheffield’s Fronteer Gallery 10 – 20 January, so that’s a good start to the year and great that I’ll be showing work with artists we exhibited with in Athens. ( yes, that was another great experience that shifted my way of thinking over working more with other artists)
So on that note, here is one of my more recent paintings… slightly more ‘traditional’ than others I’ve done, but I see it as a learning curve. This year has definitely been an education!
Happy New Year everyone !
