The Start of Something... 17th April 23
Writing it Down / Judy Woods Prompt Sheet for Artists / Mary Quant Iconic Designer
Hello, welcome to a fresh new week, full of possibilities! Last week was a busy one but not without sweet moments involving brushes and paint.
It's become a habit to write on Sundays, in preparation for publishing on Monday mornings. Occasionally it's easy; I have a rough idea and the words fall effortlessly onto the page. More often I fret about what's worthy of writing about, spend hours procrastinating, and sometimes don't get it done until well into the wee small hours...but still, I find it satisfying to turn thoughts into words. It helps me think things through and keep track of what's going on in my life when I feel overwhelmed. I recommend writing things down if, like me, you have a tangled mind.
Today distractions have been minimal. Everything is peaceful, I've had a cup of tea followed by a cup of coffee. I’ve washed most of last night’s dishes and left the pots to soak. Teeth are brushed and I've quickly flung on old jeans and a baggy jumper. I don’t have any plans for today other than writing and weeding the garden later on (if the rain stays off).
Talking of the garden, everything is growing at a ferocious pace. Leaves seem to double in size in the course of a single day. The borders which were muddy and bare a matter of weeks ago are covered with leafy sprouting perennials racing to reach the sky. There’s some blossom on the plum tree and vivid orange tulips beneath it are about to flower. I planted sweet pea seeds and sunflowers and they’re beginning to sprout. I love spring!
Spring brings me more energy and with it a head buzzing full of ideas...too many ideas, all fighting for time and attention, which is overwhelming. To calm them down and improve my focus I wrote a list, covering roughly three-quarters of a sheet of A4 paper; all the creative projects I’ve started, am in the middle of, and a few I want to start, website stuff, new techniques I want to try, etc, etc, etc. And I feel calmer now they’re on the page. Now I can prioritise. Some will never get done which fills me with a ridiculous amount of fear – the fear that life is too short to see every idea come to fruition is very real to me...but it’s crazy thinking and can lead to creative paralysis. It’s a fine line. There’s an optimum amount of fear that works in your favour to spur you on to do more, make more, and choose only the best ideas because time is not infinite. I worry a lot about wasting time and especially time wasted online but I know there’s no point in that. Life is all ups and downs. We need that contrast of downtime to help us appreciate the time well spent more intensely. Jeez, I’ve jumped from the joys of spring to existential angst in the space of a single paragraph, welcome to my mind!
Judy Woods Artist
Moving swiftly on, something great I did discover while wasting time was the artist Judy Woods via her YouTube channel. I watched quite a few of her very inspiring videos about painting techniques, which have really helped me move forward with my painting this week. Judy has a downloadable prompt sheet for artists designed to eliminate that awful feeling of I don’t know where to start. You can find the link to it in the description below this video which is about building up layers in abstract art.
I picked up my sketchbook for the first time in a few weeks and decided to work through some of her suggestions. It was so enjoyable working in an intuitive way, building up layers of collage, mark-making, and painted shapes.
Painting is important to me but for a very long time, I’ve been frustrated that I can’t l translate what’s in my mind into paint. I can’t seem to get past trying to get it right, even though I know there’s no such thing and anyway, nobody likes a swat! I want to be more playful with paint and make pictures full of unexpected textures and colour combinations that make me excited about making art again. I love abstract art but still want my work to be representational in some way, so how to do that is something to figure out. Will I ever get there? That’s another recurring thought. Will I ever get to the stage where I’m consistently producing art I’m happy with and not forever seeking the ‘future art’, which will be somehow better? It doesn’t matter to anyone else but me but I’d like to get there one day.
The sketchbook experience was a little step in the right direction so I decided to open a pack of 7 x 5 canvas boards. I’m working on them simultaneously, spending the odd hour here and there in between the boring but essential website improvements that have taken up so much time lately. This has improved the last few days immensely and I’m excited about where it will lead. I’m never sure about posting in-progress pictures since they’re likely to be unrecognisable when they’re finished…watch this space!
Mary Quant
RIP Mary Quant, who died last week at the age of 93. I am such a fan of her style. The word iconic is banded about excessively IMHO but she’s one designer who was truly worthy of that epitaph. She revolutionised fashion in the 20th century. Her mini skirts not only made fashion fun but accelerated changes to restrictive undergarments which had been virtually compulsory for ladies to that point. They brought about a new freedom to young women that was completely in tune with the swinging sixties and her influence on the way we dress is seen to this day.
The VandA has been touring a major retrospective exhibition of Mary Quant’s work which is set to open in Glasgow in May. (Go if you can!) I was lucky enough to visit when it was in Dundee. Seeing all those fabulous designs together in one place was utterly spellbinding! Especially, as we’d just come through lockdown, and being starved of visual stimulus for so long made the whole experience just that bit more exciting.
Shop News
There’s now a discount of 10% when you buy 5 greeting cards. No code needed, the discount is automatically added at checkout when you have 5 cards in the shopping cart.
If you’ve read this far, thank you, I’m grateful for Substack as a place to share thoughts and your support means so much to me!
I need to get outdoors now, and later I’ll do some more to the small paintings. Hope you have a good week and find some time to do what you love!
Julia x
Such a great post to read, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I really enjoy reading more in-depth writing here on Substack. I’m so glad I found yours here 😁
So enjoyed reading this, Julia. It rings true, and is so similar to the pattern of thoughts filling my head most of the time. Masses of ideas, of proposals and notions, that need to escape onto paper so that there is a physical record of them to refer to. Not to mention the joy when we tick some of them off as ‘done’ and finally out there in the world!
Thanks for writing, at whatever time of day or night you manage it!