A bit lost…..I lost some time due to illness and now feel I am not making progress, bit of a crisis of confidence, and an oh what’s the point of it all. Ever feel like you are just trying to keep too many balls in the air. I will push on though. I sat down to a painting I had on the go yesterday and although I felt unsure of the image I just enjoyed the paint. I think that is enough to keep me going.
Its half term next week and I may not get my painting time, but hopefully I will become bit more positive.
The visual arts group for the festival have asked for small works for a fund raising art sale in October. I think I will give them some of my lino block prints…I just wonder if anyone would want to buy them!(is my lack of confidence showing….)
Well I have finally bought myself a scanner. I wanted one largely to get the images in my sketch book digital. So I can use photoshop to help me develop the sketches in there for prints and possibly paintings. This also means I can share some of my snail thoughts in this blog. There is as I have said before at least one snail on each page, one of which I then tag with my current thought/feeling and the date.
I have spent the last week largely sorting out for the next pieces of work, ordering canvases and playing with photos. I think I am going to do a large horizontal split canvas piece on the travelling snails. I keep telling myself time is short and to work small but I don’t listen ;) I like the snails being small in a big space. That’s how snail thoughts should be.
Well the postponed meeting that should have been on the 6th of May was eventually cancelled the rescheduled date clashed with another festival meeting. Emma rang around every one instead, confirming if we were doing one or two weekends over the festival and which ones. Also making sure we get our house/studio photos over to Dean who is illustrating a map for the trail with all our locations, pics of house, and later a small image of our work. That seems to be about it for now we will have our next meeting in September when things should hot up a bit.
That means that until then this blog will concentrate solely on the development of my work, and as that is largely why I am doing the trail, and this blog for that matter, it seems apt.
So what’s new on the snail front…..well it’s still going at a snails pace but the ideas aren’t drying up, just my time.I have taken some fab new snail photos over the last two weeks the best ones just the other night with some good trails. I haven't had time to sort them out yet and see how or what to do with them.
I was going to report back about the meeting but it was postponed to the 6th of May so I have no new info on the event.
On a personal level I am in love with spectra jell. I found an old tin, must have been from my collage days…..makes the tin 20 years old! And remarkably the contents were still ok. I like what it does to the paint and the way it handles. I will just have to watch I don’t over do it and ruin the paintings I am working on. I have also been looking at where to go next with the snail theme and how to develop things. It’s definitely about direction as I have said before, and about the trails, and the spirals of the shells. I have been playing with these elements in shells, photos and sketches but am at the moment a little unclear how to progress with the next paintings.
Well more time passes and I think I am making some progress. I can’t beat myself up about how much I am doing. I am doing what I can, when I can.
I have a new snail lino print that is looking promising I took some prints off, but need to cut away a little more to balance things up a bit. I also have a new snail painting on the go that touch wood is going quite well. I did a similar one last year that didn’t really come out how I wanted but this one is looking much more like it……whatever it is? I think it’s about direction they have to look like they are going somewhere it’s what interested me.
I collected some empty shells the other week and tried to paint them it didn’t work I need the snail in there I think…..I was quite worried my little muses had gone. I couldn’t find any in the garden for a while …must have been hiding from the bad weather. I saw some the other day and was much relived. What sort of gardener have I become!
The next Artist’s open studio trail meeting is next Tuesday and I am looking forward to seeing what the next step in the planning is, and meeting some more of the Artists. I will report back next week.
