Hope 2020

"Hope"

Snowdrops 2020

Whenever I see the first snowdrops each year they give me hope of what is to come.  They always seem to bloom just when winter is at its' worst, with cold grey days needing some cheer. I know these tiny white flowers will soon be followed by clusters of cheerful yellow daffodils in my garden which will lead me into early Summer flowers full of vibrant colour.

Maybe we need the dull days to help us enjoy the sunny ones far more. As in, perhaps, we need those days when our paintings don't go as we expected. Those times really make us appreciate when our artistic ideas work!

We all have down days. But how we deal with them is the difference to their effect on us.

I've been walking our two puppies daily but I must confess when the sun shines I find my walks far more enjoyable. But those long walks in the cold wake my brain up so much more! That is my positive attitude for,  and thoughts about,  cold weather.

I wandered to the woodland section at the foot of our garden recently and discovered the first of our snowdrops blooming. Just a few but they were there and I raced into my studio to paint them. I found myself getting quite botanical with this composition but perhaps as I am tidying my home and studio with an annual spring clean my " tidy persona" is getting the better of me in my art.

Well I started this blog post with the word "hope" so I will close it with a wish that I hope whatever you wish to achieve in 2020 will not only be achieved but better than how you expected it to be.

Keep hoping positive thoughts, dreaming impossible dreams and looking ahead to bright fantastic days. Making them happen!

Happy painting

Jean

Snowdrops 2013

Snowdrops 

Work in Progress

Snowdrops from my garden are strongly on my mind as I start to paint each day.The small exercise I recently shared on my blog has instilled my passion for bringing these delicate little flowers to life. I am still drawn to the mixtures of violet and blues as my background with hints of green appearing now and then. My favourite small bud shapes which I usually depict in my snowdrop paintings have opened into the pretty shapes of the flowers in full bloom.

 Small snowdrop study from an earlier blog post this week

My studies each day grow in size from small pieces of paper to large as my imagination takes over. I now have so many wonderful options to choose from for new compositions and I am ready to start a new series of working with this beautiful sign of Spring.

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Artist Tips for the week.

1) Get to really know and understand your subject before attempting to paint it.

2) Take your time experimenting on scraps of paper before setting out to paint a finished masterpiece.

3) Decide what you love and what you hate from your results when practising painting a subject

4) Plan ahead to quality quiet time after the exercises to work on your real painting

5) Most importantly enjoy every part of the creative process.

6) Never put pressure on yourself to get brilliant results each time you paint, you learn far more from disasters than successes!

What If..................

Snowdrop Demonstration from yesterdays Market Street Gallery Workshop.

What if...........

What if today was the last day you ever had to see a snowdrop?

What if today was the last chance you ever had to capture this flower in a painting?

What if a million artists were painting the very same snowdrop, how would you makeYOUR painting different?

What if you were invited to submit your piece to an exclusive exhibition of paintings  purely of snowdrops? How would you make your work stand out to be selected out of  thousands of entries on the very same subject?

Now your snowdrop isn't just a snowdrop.

It is a challenge.

One you have to think about and consider carefully to make your painting unique and stand out from the crowd.

And now let's forget  we are talking about a snowdrop.

What if...........

You are painting any subject,how are YOU going to make it different, more interesting, more exciting, more full of life.

And now you are feeling the sense of being on one of my workshops. We are not simply painting. We are looking for so much more that is exciting and fulfilling to the artists soul. We are looking at ways we think, breath and feel as an artist at one with their medium and technique.

We are aiming  to create magic and draw the viewer into our world to see what we see.

A very unique world.

The world of being an artist.

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