Category: work in progress

Burnout

I’m knackered but I have had a very productive day in studio. I seriously need to pace myself though…to avoid burnout. Being in the studio erodes the concept of time….for me and I don’t remember to eat….I work nonstop…..one project seamlessly morphing into another…..almost as though I operate within a vacuum…a freeze frame of creativity. It is only when I get home do I realise just how knackered I am.

Sooooo tired

Must remember to give myself a break!!!

Note to self….

I am most definitely singleminded. (Just throwing it out there).

Don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing right now…don’t want to go down the ‘tunnel vision’ route.

I have come to realise that I actually need to force myself to take time out.

Y’know what? Being singleminded is not all bad. Focus is good. Bloody mindedness…now that would be a problem….tunnel vision in all its awful ‘glory’

Defo need to find time to smell the roses.

Hard graft

18th January 2018

Definitely getting the hang of this… (practise makes perfect et al). Okay…truth is…I’m buzzing this morning…most definitely got my groove on…just joined folksy …(loving the listing process right now – so good to ‘blurb’ about ‘what has inspired’ my artwork)

Folksy seems more geared towards the ‘handmade’ and it’s for ‘homegrown talent’.

Ha! Never referred to myself as ‘homegrown talent’ before…I’m either becoming ‘big headed’ or growing in confidence. I choose the latter (lest I burst my own bubble).

22nd January 2018

Spent all weekend working! (Definitely felt like work – administrative tasks). Well…fun-ish admin tasks…endlessly taking product shots and listing them. Got some new app Camera+ and photos look pretty okay (post production) but thecream of the crop is some Craft Pricing Calculator app…(where have you been all my life?). At least, now when (not if) I am put on the spot re: pricing a commission, I can enter figures and boom! Defo going to make figuring out prices so much easier for me!

So….aiming for at least 100 products listed on Etsy and preferably another 100 on Folksy. Not that I have any idea how that is in the least bit feasible. But one can dream eh? Even burning the candle at both ends would be a stretch…being both employed and self employed. My day job takes up ‘daylight’ hours and working till midnight only to get up at 5.30am is no picnic.

Resilient body of work (in progress)

Working on set of paintings…love the thread of association running through this set…resilience in the face of adversity…or so it seems at the moment.

Mixed media (work in progress-ish)… once mounted on canvas that should be it!!! It’s minimalist but that’s it. Titled Autumn or rather ‘fall’. Still undecided.

Mixed media on canvas board titled ‘come what may’…kinda where I am at the moment…finding inner strength in the face of life!

Work in progress…. (mixed media)

…untitled at the moment but about the beauty in stillness. I’m learning from flowers that I have basically put through the wringer!…and they are still standing.

Seriously curious to see what this looks like when dry and cured.

Looming deadline…

There are a million and one things I would rather be doing tomorrow morning and going to work is not one of them!!!

I’ve got a deadline looming …I really wish I didn’t need to work as an employee to fund my art practice.

I really wish I could afford an assistant right now. Going to have to find a way to squeeze a week’s worth of graft into two days. Have no idea how I’m going to pull it off but I have to.

Maybe I should call in a sickie.

Turps…

I am in love with the smell of oils…all of a sudden painting is not such a chore. I basically had no idea how to get myself reinvigorated… Then I just thought why not put another layer of paint over acrylics? So now I know what had put me off this painting (it wasn’t the (sickly) sweet smiles)…it was basically the fact that acrylic dries so fast and I do not want to be rushed off my feet whilst painting…as well as the fact that (really going all out to state facts today😊)…made a blunder when sketching. So I’m going to take my time and work into the painting with oils and voila… I’m happy and really enjoying this now.

Oil paint really has a sting in its tail… because as buttery as it is … (jeez) the smell of turps…it is too much. I definitely have a love hate relationship with oils because I loooove painting with oils but I hate cleaning my brushes….and I need to clean my brushes.