26th February 2024
Hello all. We are well into 2024 at this point, however I have not wished you all a Happy New Year yet. So… Happy New Year. I hope the first two months have been kind to you, but if not, you’ve still got ten months left for the year to improve! It has been a very slow start to the year for me art-wise, but I feel like a may have turned over a new leaf today with it so I’m feeling optimistic.
In terms of art goals for this year, I’ve started the year with only one: To enjoy creating. This year, everything else is only secondary and I am very eager not to lose sight of that. If in four to six months I feel really happy with where I’m at with creating things, then I may set some specific goals for the end half of the year, but until such a time arises, I am in a no pressure, no expectations, no anything other than creating, bubble. I have been letting other people’s expectations and opinions, etc. influence me far too much to the point where the path ahead of me hasn’t just become difficult to see, but has completely fallen of the edge of a cliff, and I must now try and find a way safely down the cliff and find it again.
I have a few different art ideas for moving forward. Some paintings, some drawings, and I am excited to get started on them. As of today though, I have actually just completed a new painting. The Pillars of Creation as seen by The James Webb Space Telescope. It is a photo realistic oil painting, the first I’ve done in a long time, and I (overall) really enjoyed painting it. I admit that I nearly gave up on it in my second to last painting session, but a few finishing touches have really helped it to pop out the page and I now deem it complete. The thing I find with realistic pieces is that they are extremely hard to ever think of as complete as there is essentially always more you could do to them. This is why I can sometimes find them extremely unsatisfying to work on; there is no clear resolution to them because the images are guided almost purely by references and thus the tiny details rather than that and composition and more overall appearance. They are more about accuracy and less about creativity. But it is done and I am happy, so it’s all good!
The next painting I intend to work on (or finish I suppose as I’m going to rework an unfinished painting from last year) will be a bit more abstract and I have no idea whether the vague image in my head will translate well onto the canvas or result in a complete mess, but I’m excited to find out! I also intend to carry on my constellation pen drawing series, so keep your eyes peeled for that too! I don’t believe I have uploaded that image onto my gallery yet, I will probably start to once I have a few more of the series to join her (I wouldn’t want Ursa Major to be lonely!)
That’s all I really have to say for now, so I will bid you farewell, and hope I will pop up again sometime in March to give an art update. Until then, stay curious and creative!
Anna.
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