Creative Life Happy Life : 15th May 23
Painting makes me happy / Break the rules / Creative Inspiration Zone / Plans / Fab Fridays
Hello, dear readers!
Life is good (when you do what you love). I had another couple of painting sessions, finished one small painting, and started working on several more, all small, no more than 9 inches square. I’m excited to finally have set up a new tutorials section on my website and finished my very first step-by-step sewing guide.
Don’t you just love it when you know you’re moving forward?
The only small blip was midweek when my head was bursting with too many thoughts vying for attention, resulting in those familiar unpleasant anxious sensations in my body. They didn’t last long because I fought back choosing paper and pen as my weapon of choice. Writing things down is always cathartic and mind-mapping works best for me. I mention that since it’s Mental Health Awareness Week and as someone who has lived with chronic depression and repeated bouts of high anxiety I know how important it is to reduce the stigma associated with mental health conditions and the importance of acknowledging how you feel and working on all the little strategies you can use to make things better.
Saturday was a beautiful warm sunny day and for the first time in ages, I took pleasure in being truly lazy, just some pottering in the garden and hanging out with my cats. Let’s hope there are many more days like that this summer!
Break The Rules
The painting sessions were by far the best part of last week. I was totally in the zone. I love how time just vanishes when I paint. There were a few blissful moments where I noticed how happy I was and thought, what the hell was all that anxiety about? A few changes I’ve made have helped me make progress. Working on a small number at a time means I can move between them when the paint is wet or I get to a stage where I’m uncertain how to proceed. That means the creative paralysis never gets a chance to set in. Also, I’m ditching loads of silly self-imposed rules, such as:
You must not use black in your paintings.
You must not use colours straight from the tube.
You must put out all the colours on your palette and in order of colour; warm on one side and cool on the other.
You must know what you’re doing!!!
You must draw lines freehand and never use a ruler.
These ideas and more were ingrained by well-meaning teachers long, long ago. For someone who takes a little pride in being a rulebreaker, I lacked awareness of how many of these old ideas I clung to and how much they were blocking me. Some rules are worth knowing. They’re mainly matters of science, for example, how different paint media react with each other, etc but on matters of style never follow the rules. You need to make your own rules and even then dare to break them!
Are there any ideas you have in your art practice that are past their sell-by date? Please feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to know!
So, I’ve enjoyed being more playful by taking pleasure in colour mixing and creating paint textures for their own sake. Life can be messy, confusing, and unresolved so I’m trying to allow far more of that into my painting.
For the moment I’ll be hanging on to these new paintings until I’ve done a few more. Then I can assess the best way to make them available.
Creative Inspiration Zone
The Creative Inspiration Zone is what I’ve called the new section of my website, which will be dedicated to art and craft tutorials aimed at adults. The name is perhaps somewhat grandiose or even cheesy (to my ears anyway) but I’m finally beginning to get my head around SEO and what to take into consideration when choosing names. So that’s what it’s called… For now, there’s only one single solitary tutorial on how to use all your scraps to make a unique new piece of fabric, but I hope to build on that when I can. It’ll be fun to share the joy of making with a wider audience.
Plans for June
Thinking ahead to next month. There are a couple of creative projects I’m particularly looking forward to - a sketchbook challenge hosted by Cathy Cullis (I’ll write more about that soon), and possibly another attempt at the 100 Days Project Scotland (which I’ve started a few times but never completed. This time…this time!) Lots of planning and decisions to make…
If you’re interested in doing a 100 days project but don’t know how to pick a project this article by Amy Cowen has great tips.
Shop news
Fab Fridays are now a thing! Every week on Friday you’ll find a different one-day-only offer in my online shop. This Friday all orders will include a free greeting card of your choice. Simply add your items to the basket including the card you want and there will be no charge for the card. Which one will you choose...?
As always, I’m thankful to you for reading. I hope you have a great week! Find time for the things that make you happy.
Best wishes,
Julia x