I’ve been re reading my initial blogs on a-n. Trying to discover some progress, development in my thoughts and achievements in art and life.
Some aspects remain constant – lack of self-belief both in life and my art but there is recent evidence of progress, I think. Really? Why add, I think? Well It’s progress not achievement.
Have been thinking a lot about what I paint and why recently. It’s no longer connected with Reflective Journals, Criteria, Deep thought. It’s just what grabs my attention and …dare I say it…. what I think might turn into a painting I could exhibit and hopefully sell !!! Shock horror.
The added incentive to sell has had a positive side-effect in that I look critically at my work and if I decide it’s not good enough to attract a sale then it’s also not good enough to keep and must be destroyed or reworked. So using this self-inflicted criteria I reworked my Clematis painting by actually doing two more on the same subject and then coming back to the first one.
It went from this….
To these three….
By doing this I think I’ve actually made some painting progress and have not lost sight of my aim to push my artistic progress/ability forward in the process of creating a (hopefully) saleable image. I sincerely hope I’ve maintained integrity in my work. In my next blog I’m going to elaborate on more thoughts I’m having… serious doubts about ‘The Sketchbook’. I’m not abandoning sketchbooks but drastically reconsidering their purpose and value.
