Studio Diary - March 2024
Join me on a whirlwind tour of March's creative adventures! Despite challenges, I've made strides in formalising my creative practice and battling the 'art isn't real work' mindset. I'll share how I've been inspired by collage artists and the breathtaking beauty of Barcelona, and why I believe sketchbooks should be messy playgrounds, not pristine showcases. Discover how I'm bridging the gap between sketchbook experiments and final canvases, and get a sneak peek at what's brewing for April!
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March has been a really challenging month. Not only was Easter rude enough to show up at the end of it completely unexpectedly (Easter is in April, and always should be), I also lost a whole week to getting sick. So I ended up having to do a month's worth of work in two weeks, which is not ideal. Because I suffer terribly from an affliction called capacity optimism (thanks very much, ADHD), it's meant that this month I haven't got nearly as much done. I haven't made as much progress on my goals as I would have liked to. But yeah, that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
If you've watched my annual goals video, then you'll know that in March, I was supposed to be concentrating on formalising my creative practice. I was going to do three things: draw every day, take my colour palette from my final work in acrylic and marry that up with my sketchbook work, and fix a painting that had gone badly wrong. I have videos on the colour palette and the painting that needed fixing coming out in April, which I think are going to be really great.
Like I said, March was a challenging month, so whilst I didn't manage to draw every day (week of sickness and a week of holiday), I did draw more frequently than I would have done if I hadn't had that intention. So all in all, I'm calling that a win. In my studio, everything is on wheels, so I can set this room up however I want. I set up the room so that before I got to my computer, I had to go through art stuff. It was a bit like a sledgehammer, but it really worked. If nothing else, it got me to stop and think and assess whether or not I was going to make art before I went to the computer and started doing the business side of being an artist (which, to be perfectly honest, there's more of than actual art-making. But that's fine - I also love running a business).
From a business perspective, I had to make a few changes and move a few things around, just because there was such a time crunch. If you're interested in finding out more about how I run my business as a full-time professional artist, I really recommend that you go and check out my Patreon. I give you all of the behind-the-scenes of what I'm doing, my thought process behind the decisions I'm making, how I'm doing my marketing, all of that. I also do some workshops on business fundamentals specifically catered towards artists and creatives.
I'm actually going to be launching a business course for artists in the not-too-distant future. If you're interested in that, the best place to find out about it is by signing up to my newsletter, my monthly studio bulletin. My newsletter list are my VIPs - that's where all the information gets there first: first look at collections, first look at any trainings that I do, first look at absolutely everything.
So what have I got coming up in April? I'm still working on this formalisation of my creative process, which has a lot to do with mindset. I think it's about getting used to the idea that I'm allowed to be an artist, allowed to make art during the work day, allowed to prioritise the playing and experimentation that feeds into the final artwork. I've heard from a lot of other artists that this is a problem they have as well, especially if you've been brought up in a world which sees art as something frivolous or just a hobby.
I've struggled to allow myself to take it seriously as a job. There's something in me that feels like if I'm making art during the work day, I'm somehow slacking off or not doing what I'm supposed to be doing - even though, literally, I need to make art if I'm going to get paid. Everything comes from the art. So this formalisation process is really about getting that mindset stuff sorted out, making sure that I'm prioritising it and getting my head on straight.
It's taken a few months, but I'm really beginning to feel the tug of the canvas again. I made over 120 paintings at the end of last year, and since then, I've been in this creative fallow period. I've just been messing around in my sketchbook, playing, not making any final work. But over the last week or so, especially having a week off on holiday, I've really felt like the ideas are bubbling up. That easel is calling my name. I want to get out the big girl paints and start splashing around again.
I've got an idea for a new series, so I'm hoping that in April, I'll actually set the room up to do proper big painting. I'll still be doing stuff in my sketchbook - that's what keeps me warmed up and keeps everything loose, fresh, and experimental. I've got this new mode of working that I'm trying out at the moment, where I'm using my sketchbook to inform the larger pieces much more. I think that's going to be really exciting. I'm really looking forward to spreading out and getting messy again. I've learned so much over the last couple of months of playing in my sketchbook, and I think those lessons are really going to make a difference to the next series of large work that I produce.
Playing in my sketchbook still feels frivolous, even though I know how important it is. The act of creating without an agenda, experimenting, trying new media or techniques, making a mess and doing it wrong, making ugly stuff, breaking all the rules and turning conventions on their head - allowing yourself to be free like that is going to make such a difference when it comes to any final work that you produce outside of your sketchbook.
Having a space where you can push yourself, where you allow yourself to be bad, to make ugly stuff, is crucial. The reason that my sketchbooks look the way they do is because that's what I use them for. The first time you try something, it's always going to look bad. The first time you do something is always going to be the worst outcome. But you take from that the things that resonate with you, the things that really work for you, and often it's in the mistakes and the 'I've never done it like this before' that the magic happens. That's where the sparks fly.
The whole point of being an artist, or the whole point of being human, to be honest, is to evolve. If we're never pushing ourselves, if we're never allowing ourselves to try something new for the first time, then we're never allowing ourselves to evolve as artists, as humans. You need somewhere to make all your mistakes so you're not making them in your finished pieces. If you know that something's a bad idea because you did it in your sketchbook, you're not going to make that mistake when you're working on finished pieces.
I've had a lot of people in the comments talking about my sketchbooks, and they're inspired by the fact that these aren't perfect sketchbooks. I think that's absolutely fantastic, because sketchbooks, in my opinion, are not supposed to be perfect. They're supposed to be playgrounds. They're supposed to be where you fall down and scrape your knees and get back up and have another go. So make your mistakes. Make your messes. Use your sketchbook, mess it up. Throw it in the sea if you need to, stomp on it. Make horrible things, but do them with joy.
Now, there are a couple of things that were inspiring me this month. The first was an exhibition by an artist called Firelei Baez. She's an incredible artist who does painting on top of ephemera, like old maps and old documents that she has printed onto giant canvases, and then she paints over the top. Her work is just absolutely phenomenal. I love the idea of painting on ephemera. It's something that I've done a little bit in my sketchbook, and I love the idea of having things printed on canvas and then painting over the top of them. I know that Cecily Brown, when she doesn't know what to do next with a painting, will have it printed onto canvas and then go back in and paint on top of the print. I'm so excited by the idea of layers upon layers.
There's also an artist called Astrid Vlasman who does a combination of collage and paint. She glues paper ephemera down onto a canvas, and then paints over the top in oils. I just absolutely love it. I think it's really exciting, and it's something that I would like to bring more into my work moving forward.
The other thing that has been super inspiring over the last few weeks is our trip to Barcelona. We stayed in this incredible hotel with a lovely view over the Plaça Reial. Of course, we went to the Sagrada Familia, and Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen in my entire life. I took so many photographs of the architecture, shopfronts, shapes, and all sorts of stuff that really blew my mind. A lot of what I've been working on in my sketchbook since we got back has been related to that trip to Barcelona, and also a bit of bringing in the collage influence as well.
I wanted to show you some of the sketches that I did over the course of March, just to show you how those influences have bled in. You can see the influence of Firelei Baez and Astrid Vlasman with the collage. This is just a crappy tourist map I picked up at the hotel, and then I've drawn one of these glorious shop fronts on top of it. I had so much fun doing the outside of this, and then I got bored.
Oh, this was fun. This guy just looked amazing. He was standing in front of the cafe where we were sitting and rolling a cigarette. I loved his pink trousers, and he had the most fabulous, craggy face and this fluffy hair and the hat. He was just an absolute joy. I was taking surreptitious photographs of him.
This couple - we were sat next to them in a real locals' restaurant out in the outskirts of Barcelona, and they just had this huge pile of mussel shells on the table. It looked so comical. They were locals, chatting to everybody in the room, and it felt like they were sort of local celebrities, almost. Just that kind of community camaraderie thing. Looking at this is just a lovely memory of that time.
One of the other things that I love to do when we go away is collect shapes. I don't really enjoy location drawing so much - I get very self-conscious. If I'm with somebody, then I feel like I'm slowing them down. But one thing I do love to do is just make super quick sketches. I'm not drawing anything specific, I'm just collecting shapes. And these were all from Barcelona. The architecture is just amazing. All of these shapes - these semi-circles and curved arches and crenellations and things. And then also the parakeet - they're just such a fabulous colour. They were really fun just to sketch down, and then a couple in paint as well. Glorious, absolutely glorious.
