I carried on with the expressionist-inspired painting I’m doing from one of my recent en plein air sketchbook drawings. Two things are coming up for me. First, the colours I’m using are intuitive and reflect something that’s going on inside somewhere, linked to the pandemic and lockdown – this is an emotional and cathartic thing that I’m doing.
Secondly, way back when I was in art college (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I did a lot of painting and I was put off by lecturers who kept going on about my work being “unfinished”. They wanted me to work in a very traditional, polished style which although is a good thing to learn, wasn’t what I wanted to do. So I drifted away from painting and found expression in drawing and printmaking. The weekly sessions I’ve been doing throughout the pandemic with the Cheese and Wine Painting Club over on Facebook have given me much more confidence in handling paint. I’ve discovered that many of the great painters we’ve been studying have got a very sloppy finish, which makes me feel a whole lot better.
A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks
I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these antique artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.
To b
uy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.
In this one, I combined the image of the bird with snippets of text of things my Nana used to say. She used to take me to Swansea Museum a lot when I was small and I could hear her voice in the back of my head as I was sitting and drawing the birds and bugs.
20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.
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Sloppy shmoppy, there are no hard and fast rules anymore. I’ve heard so many stories of people who were put off their art path by fussy teachers. Carry on!
It’s been good for me to do this during lockdown – must get on with my printmaking though 😀
A very art school story! I always hated the expectations that everyone would have a fully devloped understanding of their work that could be spouted off at a moment’s notice. Good to see that you are returning to these explorations. No expectations, no explanations needed.
Yes, there have been quite a few people saying similar things. It’s taken a few decades but I’m really motivated now 😀
Some of us are just slow learners!😉🤣