Colours & Comfort Zones...

...a matter of baby steps!

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Colour, everywhere you look...

“Colours are brighter when the mind is open.” - Adriana Alarcon

Don’t get me wrong. I do like colour, honest! Just not on me, or the decor in my home…

It's muted decor for me...

…although it’s fun when you spot something colourful that makes you smile… (Note my ‘colourful’ ensemble…!!)

Suffice to admit, this ‘Deconstructed Floral Course’ of Janette Phillips is certainly pushing me out of my comfort zone!! Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing - just scary for a ‘colourphobe’ (*) like me.

(*) Not sure that’s an actual word - I may have just made it up!

Early experiments...

I know, I know, they’re not the brightest colours - but, baby steps. What I’m enjoying most, is the encouragement to play and experiment, to not get too hung up on results, which is a trap that’s all too easy to fall into. I don’t know about you, but I find that if I know something works - be that a composition, colour palette, series of marks etc. - then, it’s very easy for those to become my default setting. And it’s so easy to rush back to that setting if ‘new’ things don’t immediately work out!! So Janette’s gentle prodding is prompting me to persist - with no expectations of where it might lead! And, often, that’s when the magic happens isn’t it?

Talking of comfort zones; have you planned to step outside yours this day/week/month/year?

Above was my ‘brain dump of ideas’ at the beginning of the year; a mix of both art and personal. And to be honest, that’s as far as the planning’s got. Without any help from me, (well, I might have dropped the odd hint or two…), one of the ‘ideas’ has been ticked off; Art Courses. Thanks to my very thoughtful OH, I’m going to be attending Janette Phillips’ in-person ‘Wonderful Watercolour’ course, as well as Sam Boughton’s ‘Abstracting the Wild Coast’ course in July. I do so appreciate how lucky I am!! (I shall be reporting back in due course!!)

As for the rest, I think it fair to say that they’re still floating around in the ether, with no concrete plans. An issue that needs rectifying - swiftly. Why? Because we’re almost in March, and the year could so easily slide away, with nothing being achieved.

Decisions have to made. It’s impossible to do them all. Putting ‘art courses’ and ‘art studio’ to one side - one is sorted, a start has been made on the other, I’ve decided to focus on 3 art related, and 2 home/personal.

The 3 art/art business related ones, which are probably the ones you’re most interested in, are:

• Painting/creativity - in my ‘brain dump’ there is the airy-fairy ‘push work’. First things first; I have to decide, what do I mean by that! Larger/include more colour/include some form of print element/different subject matter etc… ? I was debating whether to invest in some art mentoring, but have decided to wait awhile - to see if a change of scenery, the art workshops etc will help me find a new direction…

• Financial goals - I work best with ‘good, better, best’ targets. I need a target or else the whole ‘art business’ becomes a little nebulous. And in line with stepping out of my comfort zone, I’ve upped the ante on what I would like to achieve…. To that end, I’m researching some business related on-line courses. Investing in myself is still something I have difficulty with, so this is another case of ‘baby steps’….

• Develop my Substack publication - I really want to build and grow this publication. And when I say ‘grow’, I don’t just mean subscriber numbers, although that’s always good. No, I want to grow this into a ‘community’ for artists and creators. Yes, a place of inspiration, information, videos etc, but also, a place where we have conversations, discussions, where we support and cheer each other on. Of course, in the interests of being honest, increasing the numbers of paid subscribers would be great too. Why? Well, having a, what’s the terminology, a ‘side hustle’, one that generates even a modest income, well, that takes the pressure off selling paintings, which in turn, takes the pressure off during the creative process - which is no bad thing. So I’m going to be looking for ways to improve, build on and increase my offerings here…

Putting my goals out into the universe, making myself accountable, talking about pushing my work, debating whether to have a mentoring session, discussing money-related issues - well, these are all things that make me feel a little uncomfortable. I long to run to that squishy sofa and hide behind a cushion!! But what’s that saying about if you want things to change, then you have to change something…? What are you changing this….week/month/year?

Sometimes, carving out time to create proves difficult. But I still like to feel as if I’ve managed something. And, in a spare five minutes and, as an antidote to all that colour, I splashed ink around..

I used:

• Viarco - Art Graf from Jacksons Art

• Seawhite of Brighton drawing ink

• Seawhite of Brighton cartridge paper

I’ll leave you with this:

Until next time,