Like any business the professional artist has tasks that are a pleasure and those that just have to be done. June is always a busy time in Australia, organizing financial affairs for the end of the tax year - that's the boring part.
As well as that I had my last workshop for the year on the last day of June. It was a great success with participants learning different ways to keep a travel journal. There was some hands on practice and the morning passed very quickly.
As far as painting goes, much of June and a lot of July have been take up with that side of the art process that most people never see. I spent a lot of energy in the first half of the year conducting workshops and classes. There is always a lot of time and energy that goes into the preparation of these events. I also painted a couple of larger flower paintings.
This brought me to a point of feeling tired and creatively depleted. When this happens, it is time to regroup - take a bit of a break and figure out what's next.
Wanting a change from my flower journey, I have opted to return to my other love, which is landscapes. This also, I am hoping, will assuage some of the homesickness that I am feeling for NZ. I normally visit annually, but it's been 18 months now and my creative soul is feeling the gap!
To work into this I have been doing several small landscape thumbnails, playing with line and value, shape and feeling.
I am working to capture what the essence of the New Zealand landscape is for me. There are certain shapes and colours that permeate different areas of the country. My two loves are the majestic mountain ranges of the Southern Alps and their foot hills and the green, pohutakawa lined beaches of the Coromandel Peninsula.
My task is to ultimately distill the essence of these places into paint. No simple task really. To this end, I am working from memory and photos, a potent combination to stir my creative fires once again. Small works like these are not about producing a finished product, they are a means to an end, a necessary part of the Creative Practice of an artist. It is through the drawing process that I can gain a deeper connection to the subject I am working with.
I've also recently completed two small 20x20cm works for the 20x20 exhibition at the Community Gallery in Gosford in August.
Pink Delight and....
Simply Joy
Next Week: Turning imperfections into strengths