I was very happy to have my work featured in the "Art Matters"Pages of the Aotearoa New Zealand Artist magazine. AND they chose one of my paintings to feature on the front cover as a bonus!  Happy days indeed! 

I was pretty happy to be listed in this online catalogue in May. Check it out here:

Making mistakes and why it matters.

Someone once said if you don't make mistakes you are not doing anything. True enough. 

But the real point is what we do with the mistakes. So the following comments are just my personal experiences based on a bit of Education Theory. 

When I studied for my teaching Diploma and Degree, I came across the KOLB Cycle. Don't worry too much about the name. Suffice to say that Kolb's theory of learning is pretty much based on what I would call "Reflective Practice" and I will try to explain this and how it is vital to us as artists. 

In short the Kolb Cycle of reflective practice is in 4 stages.

Stage 1- the initial 'experience or experiment'
Last blog post I talked about having a clear intention, and gave the example of the intention of getting the initial block-in 'right' before moving on to the next stage of a painting. 

So let's say the initial experience is -painting the block in stage....doing it mindfully but without too much analysis.

Stage 2 - Reflective Observation

Here is where you can step back and ask yourself some questions. Reflecting on the experience of painting that block in.

For example- a good question is to ask "How did it feel? (especially if you are one of these people who loves to jump right in with colour, thick paint etc etc.) You might find the answer to that question reveals quite a lot about yourself.
Other useful questions at this stage are: 
* Did slowing down here help me see how things fit together more easily?
* Did this experience show any issues with drawing ? (perspective? Symmetry of vases and other symmetrical forms? The shape of a specific subject, for example animal or whatever?)
* Did this experience show any issues with tonal values ( not enough dark for example? Too much light?  Not enough movement of light to dark? etc etc)
* Did this experience show any issues with size and placement? 
The list of questions you ask yourself can be endless, but I think it is best to take just 2 or 3 in order to avoid being overwhelmed by it all.

Stage 3 Abstract Conceptualisation

Here is where is starts to get really interesting. Let's say the answer to the question "Did this show any issues with drawing? " is  YES  (let's use 'symmetry' as our example). Now you can analyse why that might be. 

Ask more questions:  Where is the problem? Is it height/width ratio? Does the vase look lopsided?  What if I drop a line down from the centre of the top of the vase? Is there more vase on the left of that line than on the right? IF the answer is "Yes" then you have analysed what the problem actually is rather than just thinking "O it is "off" " Asking "What if" questions can help so much here.

You can ask more "why' and " what if" questions here to empower yourself to fix the problems.

Stage 4 Active Experimentation

Here you create an "Action Plan" - something that will propel you forward and help you overcome the issues that you observed and analysed in stages 2 and 3.

Using the above example the Action Plan would be : "Every time from now on when I have a symmetrical object I will draw the centre line so I can easily check if there is the same distance from the line to the edge on both sides.

So- embrace the KOLB cycle to help you improve on your own faster. It can help you get out of the repetition of the same 'mistake' over and over. It truly helps us to learn productively from mistakes.

If this all interests you and you would like to know more and/or  did this approach help you in any way ?   Drop me a line. I would love to hear from you. 

Can you relate to this thought? "I want to become a better painter.... fast"?

yep.. 'fast'.. we live in an instant world and it has taught us to want things 'now'.

Like many women artists, I started the serious art stuff when I quit my day job and retired . So upskilling was number one.

How do you even start?

Enter the focused daily painting practice...aka the 'daily study' or 'almost daily study - life gets in the way sometimes.

I figured the only way to improve my work was to study..daily, a bit like a musician studies scales and does finger exercises. No one hears the scales and finger exercises in a performance but without them the musician is weak. It's kind of funny how we expect that musicians practice for  hours on end but somehow or other we think that artists are 'just made', so many give up too soon.

So how on earth do you start the daily study?

1. Focus on one thing at a time!  It's a bit like if you aim at nothing you will hit it.  So every time we pick up a pencil or paintbrush we have a clear 'intention'

Example:

Intention - to focus on getting that initial 'block-in'. And you can do this on good oil  painting paper. 

Why is that initial stage so important? It is here where we can start to see if the initial light-dark pattern is going to work, if the size and placement of things on the canvas works (composition) etc. The more focused practice we do on this, the better (and faster) we will get.  

I can tell you now that if we don't get that initial block in going the right way, we will end up chasing our tail all through out the painting, and it will be frustrating to say the least. I have spent many hours in this predicament! Often it can happen at workshops too where you are racing to 'catch up' to be ready for the next stage. The next stage comes and you struggle because your initial block in needs more work. Well that is my experience anyway. 

So- lots of practice just doing initial block-ins- they don't have to be large and you don't have to show them to anyone.. they are YOUR study, like the musician's scales. But also like the musician's scales, once is definitely not enough. Try it for a couple of months or so and see the difference.

Happy New Year for 2019! 

I  don't know about you, but January is always a "playful" month for me. It could be that it is something to do with being in the Southern Hemisphere when January is Summer Holidays! Every January is "Play-time" 

And this year is no different. I think everyone has some kind of inner urge to create something, don't you? 

It might be crafty or arty or it might be creating a beautiful garden, but we all have that innate God-given creative urge.

This afternoon I went to the mall with my son...and noticed already that 2019 Calendars are being discarded at ridiculous half prices. It got me thinking..well wondering actually. "Where do all the dead calendars actually go? "

One of my favourite January activities is to turn my old (last year's) calendars into lovely gift boxes. Now my question is of course... would you be interested in knowing how to make these quickly and easily? Drop me a line at  : [email protected]

If you want to know, I will put together a Video?? Or  A PDF?  What is your preference?

Annoyingly my darling husband chucked out a good quality London Calendar before I could get my hands on it. Grrrrr!!! However, the Paris one was in my Art Studio and of course no- one is allowed to touch stuff in my studio! So the Paris one is now boxes and 3 bookmarks.

Admittedly, I used a Brother Scan N Cut for the lettering, but the fearless among us might try using an Xacto Knife! 

Of course I would love to know what kind of things you like to do to reconnect with your creative self! So leave a comment below and let us know.