The Beginnings of a New Journey
Welcome to my new blog. I wanted to introduce myself and share my journey thus far from excruciating first moments with pencil drawings in St Ives to the daily exhilaration and excitement of messing about with paintbrush (or mostly fingers!) and anything else that I can get my hands on. My intention with this blog is to share monthly my inspiration and experiences of my art journey and delve a little into how this impacts on my practice.
Maxwell Park 2023 - Oil on Board Nothing says new beginnings to me more than dappled spring sunlight through the trees. New Work
A Quick Recap
The returning journey to art began in 20I6 with a month long house swap to St Ives and a fantastic 4 day painting course with amazing Gary Long. I was immediately hooked and began drawing daily, which was, to say the least, one of the most painful things I’ve ever done, as the results were so bad. To this day I have no idea what kept me going. On returning to Glasgow, I immediately applied for a Graphic Design course (which I loved for the learning but design is definitely NOT me) so I moved 3 doors up the corridor at the college and entered 2 years of Contemporary Art Practice, which still makes me giddy when I think of the amazing time I had. So, enthused, I have spent the years almost daily working on drawing and painting, learning from teachers whose work I encountered and inspired me (the power of the internet community).
Jackdaw 2021 - Charcoal and Pencil - Print shop
The jackdaw above was a pivotal moment for me… producing a drawing that had the quality of mark-making and the energy that I was looking to portray in my work. I say to people that even although it didn’t take me long to initially draw it, in reality it actually took me 4 years of exploration.
I’ll finish this by saying that I am now the happiest I have ever felt in my life and if I have one piece of wisdom to share out of the years of study, struggle and exploration that has been this journey, it would be to just start and to keep going (even/mostly blindly) as I believe that you will never go wrong if you just listen to and follow your heart,
And finally…
2023 has already been a fantastic year, which has included a 4 person show at the Smithy Gallery, offers to show in 2 other galleries and a one person show in August…watch this space. I’m taking part in Dumfries & Galloway’s annual Spring Fling artists open studio festival for the first time, from my small studio in Portpatrick. The event runs from 27-29th May (opening night 26th May 6-8pm). It would be great to see you if you fancy a visit to this lovely harbour town.
Drawing of the Month
This oil sketch is part of a larger series of work exploring the figure in a loose, raw form with the intention of capturing the energy and aliveness in the pose, something that is crucial to my work.
Oil Figure - 2023 Oil on Paper - Figures
