My latest work is finished. I always feel a sense of completion and accomplishment when a work is finished. They take up so much of my time, thought, and physical space that finishing them means more to me than a completed artwork.
The completion of this piece feels very different though. I have dubbed this period of my work the ‘Girls looking down and away from the camera with their eyes closed’ phase. Starting with my “Mandala Forrest Faerie” and moving through to this piece, these works have been about me trying to find my style and confidence. When I began, I relied heavily on graphite and pen, toying with watercolours as an add on, rather than a tool. This final piece was entirely watercolour, other than pen for the mandala and a touch of the black detail in the face. I have progressively used each work to build my confidence in technique and my own creative process.
As I work through “The Artist’s Way” I am discovering just how much my creativity is me, and that I am my creative expression. The last time I ever embraced the full process of taking in the world, documenting it, and creating art from it was at school. Back then I saw the visual diary as just another assessment and never really embraced what it was- a way to process the world so I could spit it out in a new form, rather than be engulfed by it.
I am now noticing more of what inspires me. I am seeking to really see the world and I feel a pull to learn as much as I can about it so that whatever it is that is brewing in me can… happen. I don’t know exactly what that is yet, but I’m feeling excited at the unknown potential that is in this moment.
My little nook has not looked this fresh for months. I have been on a creative bent while working on a commission piece and “Longing for Spring” which meant everything I needed was out and on hand at the ready. Now my pallets are clean, my paints are orderly and my space open to possibility. I’m looking forward to doing studies and painting with no purpose for a while. It will take some work to keep the ‘must be productive and make tangible items’ narrative at bay, but this ‘unproductive’ down time is the most important part of being able to create what is meaningful to me.
Other than studies, I have decided to keep my visual diary in digital form. With great tools like Pinterest around, it means I can save paper (and space) by posting images, photos and diary entries, and documenting it all here on my website. I’ll be including pics of my studies in that space so it is all in one place. You can check it out here. The set up is pretty basic right now, but everything starts somewhere.
Whipit good!