Reconnecting With Art Making: Studio Diary - August 2023
- Aug 10, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 9
"Reconnect Your Drive." I've been getting this error message every time I open up my computer over the past few weeks. It's remarkably persistent with its big red warning triangle and loud pinging notification sounds. At first I just ignored it, then I got a bit frustrated with it.
And then the penny dropped.
I was seeing it too often because I was spending a disproportionate amount of time working on the computer, dealing with 'the unavoidable other half of an artists life'!
So I knew it was time to reconnect with art making in the studio. With lots of paintings on the go, all at varying stages, some just begun, some in the messy middle and some nearly there, I knew it was going to take me a couple of days to reconnect with my thoughts and 'get back into it'.
Standing in front of all this incomplete work I realised my radar had gone silent. I'd let go of the threads that were holding them all together, beyond the colours and shapes which I'd started out working with.
So how do I step back into the studio productively after what feels like an absence?
I do two things.
| Reconnecting With Art Making
Firstly, I let go of where I thought I was going before the absence and recognise that in the time that's passed, an evolution of sorts has happened. And the thoughts I had last week are not the same thoughts I'm having now.
So I look at the work with a new perspective and allow new sentiments to blossom and give air time to new ideas.
This is what gives each and every painting a unique value - the life of the artist is intertwined with their paintings. The life journey creates sometimes subtle, sometimes drastic shifts in the mind of the artist and this becomes evident in the work as it evolves.
I embrace the thoughts of the day and allow them to steer my thinking and guide the making of the work.
Secondly I'll do something that seems fairly visually drastic. Making a significant change to the existing painting, whatever stage it's at, restarts the conversation I'm having with it. Often it feels like a retrograde step, but I do it anyway as a way to reconnect with it.
And so the journey begins anew.
New thoughts, new actions and a new conversation are what gets the creative flow happening again. I'll never know if my previous intended direction of travel would have resulted in a more or less exciting destination, all I know is that I'm going somewhere new today and this new destination will be what it is.
And as for the persistent error message, I think I might need a computer geek to help me with that, but I'll deal with that another day!
| Out and about and Outside the Box!
I've had a busy time teaching for Noosa Arts & Crafts at beautiful Wallace House, with more sessions to come at the Tinbeerwah Art Group at the end of the month.
We had a great weekend exploring colour and experimenting with simple gelli plate printmaking, collage and constructing surfaces from recycled materials to create a series of abstract artworks - some big, some small!
'Space and Focus' was the topic for a session with the Oils and Acrylics painting group where we looked at positive and negative space, using colour contrasts and ways to add focal points to abstract work.
Check out the beautiful exploratory pieces created by participants. So much fun to be out and about and connecting with enthusiastic art makers!
| Incognito Art Show
The Incognito Art Show fundraising exhibition and online art sale has been a huge success again this year, with over 5000 artworks contributed from artists across Australia in support of Studio A and Little Orange, organisations supporting the creative practice of artists living with a disability.
My three donated artworks have sold, but you can watch them coming to life in this video and browse the online collection of available works via the link in 'What's On' section below.
| Blog Catch Up
My series of small paintings and sketches continues to grow - enjoy my latest colour explorations!
So until next month, embrace the opportunity to reconnect with what's on the easel if you get the chance and don't be afraid to give your work a nudge in a new direction, you never know where it will lead; your painting may even end up some place you couldn't previously have imagined, which is all the more exciting!
| What's On
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