Well the past week has been a bit of high point art wise for me. I’ve not only broken the creative slump I was struggling with, but I’ve had some significant wins to celebrate.
Exhibiting My Work
I mentioned in a previous blog a local arts centre (The Exchange) is showcasing my work in October – the first time I have exhibited . Last week they sent through the poster they have created to promote the opening day.
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2021
At the weekend I received an email from the Royal Academy. Having handed over my painting for stage 2 judging I was fully expecting to get a “thanks but no thanks” email. So when I saw the email pop up in my inbox on Saturday I didn’t rush to open it. I made a cup of tea and stared at the screen for a while. I was trying to decide whether I wanted to leave the email and extend the feeling of optimism until Monday.
Curiosity got the better of me so I did open it and to my complete surprise they accepted my painting. Not only that but I am now attending the traditional ‘Varnishing Day’ on Monday 13th – woohoo! The only down side is I can’t take a guest, so my poor husband is driving me down without being able to attend the reception.
Studio Update
The positive vibes seemed to help with my painting and I spent almost all day on Sunday painting. I am struggling a bit with a larger piece – my largest to-date. I think the canvas is 1m by 80cm. It’s still very much work in progress and at this stage I have no idea where it will end up.
So after a few hours on this I spent the rest of the day working on some smaller paintings. I enjoyed the more representational one I shared last week so thought I’d explore how to take this idea in different directions style wise. It was fun as it combined my love of illustration and sketching with painting.
I also had a load of little 20 x 20cm cradle boards and canvas boards. I’m not sure when I bought these but being a bit smaller for abstract pieces they seemed perfect for this.
I’m hoping to finish a few of the seven I’m currently working on next week to share on instagram.
I can’t see this being a completely new direction, its more of a diversion, but a lot of fun.
And as if the week couldn’t get any better on Monday I received an email from another exhibition I had submitted to – Manchester 2020 Vision. This time a virtual one, and they have also accepted my work. It does give me a challenge that I’ve never had before. I thought I was all sorted with paintings for October, finally getting round to framing a few earlier pieces.
But now I’m wondering if I need a few more???