In My Minds Eye: 7th October 24

Earthy Autumn Landscape / This Time Last Year / Catching My Eye

Morning Walk ©Julia Laing 2024. Mixed-media on watercolour paper

An earthy autumn landscape from a recent painting session. I was struck by the beautiful light and colour of the changing leaves one morning in a place where we walk regularly so I wanted to capture some of that feeling later in my painting session. The place isn’t recognisable from this but there are similarities; a path cutting through overgrown grasses and wild flowers, banks of trees on either side, the Pentland hills in the distance, and a menacing sky. It’s got a feeling of the place, which I’m pleased with.

Holding an image in my mind’s eye isn’t always easy. Not sure how my experience compares to others. I can picture places, people and objects but they’re very fuzzy with sparse details. There are definitely pictures though. I was very surprised to learn about the condition aphantasia recently, where people see no images at all in their mind, just blank voids and words. It’s thought to affect somewhere between 1 and 4% of the population. How strange must it be not to have pictures associated with memories?

Thanks to those who commented last time, and to all who read. I enjoyed the positive reaction to these new paintings. Although I’ve been posting my work online for almost 20 years (gasp!) it’s still more than a little scary when it’s new work. I felt quite vulnerable about it so leaving a gap between making the work and sharing it seemed like the right thing to do. I was reassured that a few people have asked if I’ll be adding them to my shop soon - that’s definitely the plan…. There’s a few cat pictures to list as well. I’m half way through, titling, signing, dating, varnishing, mounting and bagging. Still photography to do but there’s a problem getting photos from my good camera to my Chrome book. There’s no large slot for a memory card and I can’t find the camera’s cable. There is supposed to be a way to do it wirelessly with an app, which I had no luck with and after a few hours I gave up on. I’m sure the cable will turn up soon, or phone camera pictures will have to do. Anyway, sorting that out is my priority for this week.

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Remembering

This time last year I was combining beautiful fabrics, threads and beads to make statement textile brooches. Find this one here.

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Catching My Eye This Week

• As the colours fade over the next few weeks and months, I’m going to try out this idea from Collecting Color on The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker. Sounds like a great way to brighten up the winter days.

• Good advice from Judy Woods Art about how to know for sure if your painting is complete.

• And finally, Thank God For Immigrants