Neul Painting.

I painted this one at the very end of July - very beginning of August.

A call for artists came from The Freudian Sheep for an exhibition called ‘Land Sea Sky’ and I jumped at the chance! I emailed Ian and asked a few questions, because of course, I was excited, yet nervous and I had no idea what exhibiting there would entail.

Reassured with a response, I was determined to get something painted in time and thankfully, I did. I am rather happy with the final painting. I used a photograph I took during my holiday in Scotland and a canvas that was previously primed whilst I was still at university. Naturally, when I first completed it, I wasn’t sure about how it looked and I even doubted my abilities during the process, but it gradually grew on me.

The title of Neul came from the Scottish Gaelic for cloud. I thought it would be appropriate.

Now, it is one of my favourite paintings that I have created and it has caused me to want to paint more clouds for my final year. Unfortunately, it’s still back home as there was absolutely no space in the car for anything else when I brought my things to move in to a new place. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get it here at some point.

Summer Regrets.

(I began this post weeks ago and like usual, I didn't finish it... But today I will).

I have a couple days of my summer holidays left before returning to university for my final year. A really important year... These past months should’ve been used to prepare for it and instead, I have only gained a list of regrets and a painting I like. Sigh.

My main one is not putting myself out there and interacting with other artists and like-minded people, making contacts and such. I may have exhibited a couple of time at The Freudian Sheep and revisited the place too, but I spoke to no one about art. You would have thought that I would have overcome this, I mean, I have been making art for a few years now and it still scares me.

I definitely don’t know as much as I should about the subject. I am one of those people who likes what they like and knows if they don’t like a piece; whether it is because of a colour, or a shape, or even just the way the paint looks on the surface. I’m not into that arty farty-ness where a splash of colour must represent war and a line clearly signifies peace trying to pull through. Theories and reasons are often tried to be pushed on to our practical work at university, that’s not for me.

Last year I painted elephant skulls simply because I visited a museum and saw one, I found it beautiful and I wanted to recreate the image in paint. There was no hidden meaning behind the elephant skull, or for why I used oil paint. This year, I intend to paint clouds, maybe skies. I visited Scotland a little while back and I found them beautiful, I had never paid much attention to them before, they were just something in the sky that came and went. However, in that setting of amazing landscapes and vast openings of sky, it hit me. I cannot stop looking up. I never thought I would be one of them artists that look to the environment around us.

Anyway, I’m getting side tracked – no surprise there – in all honesty, I don’t want people to realise how stupid I am. There I said it.

Next regret, I should have started reading and making notes, and even started, my damned dissertation ages ago. I keep putting it off… I don’t do well at making myself do things unless there’s someone forcing me to do it. I’m unbelievably so easily distracted. I can write 500 words for this blog post, but for my dissertation? Nope. Monday will be fun. We have a meeting about it and I have nothing.

It confuses me a little as to why we even have to write thousands of words. It still sticks in my mind that because I’m a painter, I should write about painting. I wanted to learn about something new, which would’ve probably made me more interested in it and I would have started it. I really just want to paint. It’s my own fault, I could have finished it over the summer, I would then be able to be in the studios all the time and paint to my heart’s content.

On to the next one, I wish I had volunteered to help at The Freudian Sheep gallery; I love that place, it would have been great to get experience of what goes on. Especially seeing as I hope to one day open up my own space like that. I left it too late and someone else did instead and well, I never offered my help… Big mistake!

I went on holiday to the highlands, as you know, but I wish I had gone on more adventures, with family and friends (not that I have many). Just got in the car and went for a drive without a care in the world and see where we ended up, possibly with a sketchbook in hand. Visited museums full of bones and galleries that go against the white space norm. Drunk tea in cafes and talked about ideas or plans for the future. None of this happened… Maybe another time… As I write that, inside I know it will never happen.

There’s also the ‘I should have made more art work’ regret  and sketchbook work, writing down ideas and sketches. Which I have never been good at whilst at home, I don’t really have the space to do what I want and maybe an easel would help (AND I’m just very lazy).

Plus, I really should have stayed up to date with my blogging. There are about 8 blog posts that I haven’t written of things I made and did… Maybe I’ll get back into it…

Whoa – made it to 800 ish words – congratulations if you managed to read this far! I hope it made sense…

The photo is of fields back home, just look at that sky!

Silence Is Golden.

"Silence is golden."

Here is the second and last drawing I achieved whilst away, I then worked on it again at the weekend with watercolour. I am more pleased with this than the previous one, I suppose the fact I liked the drawing better in the first place also helps and I guess I learnt from what I did to that one as well.

This illustration came about after all the bus journeys filled with noisy children and I assume it included the sleepless times at night too. The moment they left through the doors, it was instant peace. I’ve decided I don’t like kids unless they’re quiet and cute haha!

I reckon I’ll possibly do more pieces like this in my sketchbook, I not sure what sort of drawings as of yet. We shall see, they may not happen like most of the things I want to do, I just hope people like them if I do…

Monster Tears.

‘Monster tears…’

As you know I went on holiday and you’ll be surprised to know that I did not fail like I thought I would. I managed to do a couple of drawings while away (I didn’t think I would do anything). This is the first one which I drew around 6 AM, after having a terrible nights sleep, which I was not pleased about. No one would be happy about being woken up at 1 o’clock in the morning, then struggling for ages to get back to sleep and indeed I got a little emotional. I love my sleep and it’s something I need. We all need. Even though I did get a chance to think about a few ideas for my sketchbook.

Do you want to know the reason for my awakening? Well, it was my nan. She snores and I mean, really snores. I’ve never heard anything like it. The phrase came from this. It could’ve almost been a monster, if they existed and I had not have known it was my nan. I’m glad I wasn’t alone in the room. I know she felt bad about keeping me awake and I’m not saying all this to make her feel worse, but I guess this drawing wouldn’t have happened without going through this. So, thank you nan. I don’t usually create from my own experiences and what I feel about things; this is something new to me.

Due to me only having my sketchbook and a pen with me whilst awake, all I could do was draw. Now that I am home and I’ve finally got my butt into gear, I’m trying to get back into sketchbook work and blogging. Today, I decided that I should go back in my sketchbook and finish off a few of the pages. I tend to just leave it and move onto something else. I found my watercolours and was ready to do something. I wanted to add colour to this image, I chose blue because of the eye and the tear. It’s not great and I admit that (I should probably invest in some good inks), but it’s better than nothing. I sat at my desk and went for it. I then let it dry in the sun and added the phrase.

Holiday Art.

I know it has been a while since my last post, but hello and thanks for sticking around. Be prepared for some appalling blog writing; I am a bit out of touch. The week before last I went on holiday with me nan to Eastborne. There was a definite lack of sunshine, although I still enjoyed myself. I thought I'd show you a few arty farty things I spotted whilst being away, as well as showing you my ability to take great photos (love a bit of blurring haha).

The first below photo is my first attempt at capturing the pier at night with its lights on. It looked lovely and made me smile. Lights are nice. I thought I had done well until I got back to my room and realised it was a huge fail.

The day after we went by coach for a day trip to Brighton and on the way we stopped at Beachyhead, however it was unbelievably foggy and windy that we didn't stop long. Just enough time to have a look round the information centre and buy a sheep. I was trying to capture a shrimpy thing, unluckily it was too quick for me, but I like the colours and shapes in the image. This is where the image at the top comes in, it's from Brighton, it was my favourite from the street art I saw that day. What a cheeky giraffe!

And of course, a holiday isn't a holiday unless you do a bit of shopping, so wrapped up in the rain the next day, we set off down town. After an ice cream and some chips, we ventured out on to the pier. At the entrance was the tiled star on the floor. The muddy footprints are of people now gone. You'd also think I'd learn that it's always windy out on them, but it still surprised me. My nan let me loose with her camera and later on regretted it. I take pictures of anything and everything. That night after tea and during the usual drivel for entertainment, I decided to be arty farty and take a couple of pictures of some sexy red cherries and yellow dots on a beermat that someone had left behind. I also had to include the Charles Darwin coin, simply because it's awesome and I have never seen one before.

Our final day was filled with bus travel. We started off by going on one of those open top sight seeing buses and I stupidly sat at the top. This made me unable to breath properly while we were moving and I got a massive knot in my hair which I had to pull out (ouch! - once again, due to the bloomin' wind). After we got off I noticed the cool graphics on the side, the seagull (who is clearly thinking 'damn, I'm fabulous!'), I wish I could design something like that and the beach chairs at the seaside. The final image is is a scribble that someone must have drawn on a beermat to see if their pen worked ready for bingo. I believe it looks like a foot and I named it 'At the end of my foot... 8-0.' It's a number call out in bingo and it always makes me giggle.

So there you go. My holiday ramble. I apologise that it's long and boring. I blame the fact I haven't blogged in a while. Forgive me? You're lucky I have a limit on the amount of pictures I can upload, I took loads (mainly of the sea - they more or less look the same haha). I may do another post about them, maybe, maybe not. We'll see how lazy I am.