More studio refinements and headspace for new creations.
Every Saturday I share my art practice over the past 7 days. I’m fascinated by artistic practice – it’s not just about creating art but the entire process. From influences and ideas to materials and skills, each artist’s unique approach shapes their work, making it more than just a finished piece.
This week in the studio, I’ve revamped the space even more, organised previous artwork, and unleashed new creative energy. From archiving drawings to repurposing old pieces, the process unfolded in a video walkthrough. I found inspiration in sketching and added new vibrant colours to ongoing paintings. Two fresh artworks emerged: One abstracting the female form, the other a Memento Mori piece with some interesting history behind it. I also stumbled upon a large linen sheet, ready for a new creation, so watch this space.
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Thank you so much for joining me in my art practice this week.
Studio space refinements continue amongst new artwork appearing. I’ve archived a load of A3 and A4 drawings into folders, stacked all of my previous paintings into a neat stack in the corner of the studio, and cleared even more space.
Video transcript:
“So we’re making really good progress in the studio. First of all, let’s go over here. I’ve got all my previous paintings stacked in this corner. It’s not ideal, but they’re all together out of the way, so I can leave space for new work in the rest of the studio. These are new canvases, and old canvases to paint on.
So the other thing I’ve been doing is archiving all of my drawings and old flyers and stuff. So I put them all into these, four folders, I’ve got so many drawings, and I’m going to archive the newer pieces that I’ve done so I can keep these nearby. So I’ll put these with all the newer stuff under here. And like I said before, I stacked a load of old framed paintings and smaller paintings there. Ideally, I’d like some extra space to store them in, but, yeah, we’ll see what happens with that.
Then all of the archive stuff is going to go in here, sorted out all the drawers, put all of these drawings in there. So out of the way.
Yeah. Didn’t realise how many I’ve got. So many. So many. And then I’ve got my daughter’s first drawing, it’s very precious. She was about six months old then. Yeah. So we put all these in here and then at the top, I’ve got all the stationary stuff, which needs a bit of refinement. At the bottom, I’ve got clothes and if you have a look at these bottles, this was part of an exhibition I did. I made my own cola bottles. It’s called ‘Overloaded Cola’. So that was around this piece here, which is called ‘Overloaded’. When I had kidney failure, I had 30 litres of water on my body, which was an extra 30 kilogrammes, which is a lot of weight, but I didn’t really notice at the time. In hindsight, my face was very bloated. I did have swelling in my ankles and my legs, lower legs, quite bad.
But, yeah, that’s all in the past anyway. But these, I’m going to keep some of them for posterity reasons. So I need to sort this cupboard out. I’ve run out of time at the moment. I’ve got these new pieces that I’ve started on and carry on working on.
I’ve got all of my paints in one corner, palettes, brushes and all that kind of stuff. Got my coffee machine, which I’m actually going to get to use, that’s been stored away for ages. Yeah. So it’s getting there. There are just so many levels of organising with this.
This is an old banner I had for my exhibition, so I’ll have a quick look here. So, like I said, there’s so much stuff in these two cupboards as well. I wanted to get the main space sorted out first and then I can go through these like half an hour at a time when I’m in the studio. So, yeah, that’s it really. I will update you soon with some new pieces I’m working on.
Okay, thanks for listening. Bye.”
The same evening, just after I put my daughter to bed, I started sketching using a lined notebook I had in the dining room drawers. The freedom we take into sketching, should (I wouldn’t say I like using ‘should’) be the same as we create other pieces. The only difference is where our minds are at.
The day after, I started adding additional colours to the paintings I started a few weeks ago.
I love the colours, the combination reminds me of the New York Knicks basketball kit. It would be interesting to see how this combination would affect the feelings of New Yorkers who are Knicks fans. Colours are powerful, they create feelings beyond words.
Next, I made a start on two new paintings:
Firstly, I painted over an old piece that I wasn’t too happy about, using the curves of the female form abstractly. I love the bold contrast as it is but I will continue with the layers when it dries.
Secondly, I had an MDF board with an 1873 “The Times” newspaper that I had previously pasted onto it. My new idea was to use the curves of an hourglass and the edge of a skull as an abstracted Memento Mori piece. With the orange and brown, the paint is applied thickly, but the blue areas have an acrylic wash so that you can see the newspaper print behind it. The idea is to “remember your mortality” as everyone who read this newspaper, was living their lives like you and me, now they have gone. No one from 1873 is alive in 2024. I look forward to returning to this when the first layer of paint has dried.
More to be added to these two pieces next week. Watch this space.
Finally, for this week, the amazing thing about being in the art studio is that you can have an idea and then start working on it immediately. As I was clearing out the space, I found a huge linen sheet I bought to paint on a couple of years ago, so I spread it across my wall ready for a new piece. The beauty of loose linen or canvas is that you can roll it up for easier storage, ready for stretching at a later date.
Here’s a quick video of my art studio space with the new paintings (no audio).
One last thing, I bought some 2-litre bottles of primary acrylic paints. If you’re an artist, you’ll understand my excitement in finding such a great deal. I look forward to creating some colour combinations next week.
Orange and blue in my day-to-day life this week: My daughter’s baby spoons.
And randomly, a Baby food tin and tissue packet next to a pan of boiling carrots:
Thank you for joining me in my art practice for this week.
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SLART
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