Meeting New People

Click image for a larger view.

I moved to a new town about 5 months ago, and while I have met some lovely people, it will be lovely to meet more. I have been pleased to find that this town is very friendly, but as with anywhere, people already have their lives in place and aren’t necessarily looking to expand their friend circle. It often seems to be the way that we meet our friends at work so I’m looking forward to the opportunity for that. At the very least I will have a whole new range of acquaintances and that can’t be a bad thing.

Exercising my brain muscles

Click Image for a larger view

My new job will be a wonderful challenge and I am so looking forward to that! I was lucky enough in my last job to find myself being able to respond to challenges and expand my role in the area of my interests. This has directly lead to me getting this new job! I can’t wait to find out what I’m capable of this time!

A little bit of structure

Click image for a larger view

I know, it will be a whole lot of structure in truth! I am sad to admit that I’m not the best at creating structure of my own for work here at home. It always seems I get the most done when I have the most to do. These past few months of “leisure” have been a treat but I didn’t manage to create the structure I had planned on for myself. I know I won’t solve that issue by going back to work, but it will be nice to have the other benefits as well.

Yes, money!

Click image for a larger view

I had planned to immerse myself in my studio and make money through my art. A tiny obstacle to that is my lack of “studio”! Yes, I claimed a spare bedroom and have it set up wonderfully, but it is just too small and needs to stay too clean for me to feel the studio freedom I crave. I have a year contract for my new job and I should be able to build a studio space with the extra money. Now that is truly exciting!

A need to “settle”

Click image for a larger view

One strong reason I wanted to work here in my new town, is so I feel a part of the community, not just a newcomer. Going to work is a commonplace. I want to feel settled here. I want it to feel like home. I want it to feel ordinary. I want being here to be comfortable in the way familiar things are.

Prove myself – to myself

Click image for a larger view

My new job will be a challenge as I’ve said. I want to find out how I go with it, what I do, how I will do it. I will need to expand some of the skills I already have and basically move up to the next level. I think I will be pretty pleased with myself when I do that.

Quandaries ensue

Click image for a larger view

Of course quandaries ensue! How will I keep my creativity ticking over? My job is creative but it won’t be painting pictures! Will my painting go by the wayside?

I don’t think so. It never has in the past. I may take small breaks away from it, but that happens even when I’m home full time, so that is not the issue. The issue is how to build painting and my other creating into a day with full time work. I am pleased to say I have some good ideas on this! I’ll share these ideas in my next post.

Click image for a larger view

At the time of posting, all images shown here are available for sale.  Some are up in my shop already and others will be added over the next few days.  Please feel free to contact me.  My shop can be accessed via the “Purchase Art” tab at the top of the page.

Click image for a larger view.

I like to read books and blogs on creativity. There is a general consensus that creating early in the day is the most effective way of making sure you achieve your creativity goals. Well, I decided to follow that advice recently and yes, I can say it is a good day that is started that way!

Click Image For A Larger View

After all those faces I drew for my Moly X’s, I was wondering how to keep the momentum going. Well, why not just keep drawing them!?

Click Image for a Larger View

Soon after breakfast I’ve been heading to my studio and drawing emotional faces. I have loved it! Little stories about why they felt like that started to tell themselves to me. I loved listening! Sometimes they were happy stories and sometimes they weren’t. Life’s like that. Sometimes they make me chuckle. I like that!

Click Image For A Larger View

“The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.”

Anais Nin

Click image for a larger view

I’m looking for that kind of miracle. My guess is they don’t just flutter down on you from on high, other wise I’m pretty sure we’d all be living our dreams right now. I think they come to those who pursue them. Doggedly.

So why do I feel like me doggedly pursuing my dreams is somewhat of a spectacle, an embarrassment, while, when I look at others doing just that I feel admiration? Why is it all so confusing to me, when others actions seem so self assured? What is this feeling called? Uncertainty? Humiliation? I just want to turn invisible.

Yet, I’m not. And I still dream.

Click image for a larger view

So my first steps, my latest steps towards my dream future, is to catch up on a few projects I’d let slide (for a year!). These drawings are for Molyx3 (International Moleskine Exchange #3). I had three books here waiting for my entries and this week I decided to dive in. I always agonise about what to do, what topic, what style, what materials to use in these books. This week I decided to fill my allotted pages with the drawings that have been interesting me for almost a year now, my “emotion” drawings.

Click image for a larger view

I have a jar which holds tiny slips of paper with hundreds of emotions on them. I choose one at random, take a moment to “get into the emotion” and then I pick up a little mirror and “pull the face” of it. I put the mirror away and then I draw the emotion. I am still pretty much always amazed that the emotion then appears on my paper. I don’t know how I translate my “agony” or “elatedness” from my face to the page.

But that is the way of creativity. We know not from whence it cometh. But cometh it does – if we sit at the empty page and take up the tools.

And so I will be doggedly taking up my tools and attacking blank pages and canvases, waiting for inspiration and letting it fuel my dream. I’m going to catch up.

My latest preferred method of taking on board motivation is to read and collect quotes. I guess I’ve always liked doing this, but it is really so easy now that I use Pinterest. I admit it’s a bit of a risk visiting Pinterest to gain motivation because the site can be such a huge suck of time and, well, motivation too. (If you look at too many different sources of inspiration you can end up not knowing what to do!). So I try to make sure I visit with a specific goal in mind.

Pinterest also had me inspired to think of clever ways to display my latest batch of wise words. I was tempted by framing them and hanging them all in a cluster on the wall, but I find I want different quotes fairly regularly and I don’t really want to be reframing and rehanging all the time. Also I haven’t got our new home quite that ready yet. The idea of a printable cardboard cube came to me and I instantly wanted it to be share-able. You have been such good and loyal readers in spite of my erratic posts!

So here it is – The Artling’s Motivational Cube #One. It includes wisdom from Picasso, Warhol and many unknown sages. I designed the typography (something I’ve wanted to do more of for a while) and found all the quotes on Pinterest. I had a lot of fun making it.

Download the PDF and print it yourself. I printed mine on plain white card. It’s terribly easy to make. You simply cut on the solid lines and fold on the dotted ones. I used a bone folder to make the folds crisp but you can use the round end of a paper clip if you don’t have one, or even just use your finger. Once your folds are all done, add some double sided tape to the white tab areas and you are ready to start sticking!

I made the file A4 size as it’s the Australian standard.  You can print it on Letter or other size paper by checking the “Shrink to fit” box in your print dialogue. It is for your personal non-commercial use only.

For me the best thing about this cube is its ephemerality (is that a word?). When I want to change my source of motivation I’ll be able to whip up a new cube to accommodate them! (I will share any new ones with you too, of course!)

Has the motivation made a difference? Has it lead to ACTION? Dare you ask, has it lead to RESULTS? Well, yes, actually, I’m pleased to say it has. It’s all to soon to show but I’m in my new studio room and painting again. And it does feel good!

Are you on Pinterest? Follow my “Words of Wisdom” board here or all my boards here. I use Pinterest for many many things, not just art. I hope you’ll find something that interests you in all my pins.

I’ve had lots of “…maybe I could do that” moments while looking at the doings of others. (I aspire to be one of those people on the internet who provoke that response in you!) Some of it I have gone ahead and done and I must say there is nothing nicer than “I did that!” And of course, I’ve read lots of articles about doing what you love, following your passion and living your dreams. I don’t think there has ever been a place more suited to that kind of idea than the internet. Or a field more suited to it than art making.

Two Women Who Have “Made It”

I’m going to talk about two of the people I’ve “watched” (trying not to sound stalker-ish), Melissa Averinos and Serena Star Leonard. Both have very little in common beyond this article! I hope they don’t mind me lassoing them here.

In order to explain my near obsession with Melissa I must first confess an addiction to workroom porn. I love photos of studios, craft rooms, work rooms, even offices. I can’t get enough of how creative people are and how their work space reflects that. Anyway, Melissa posted a series of to die for photos of her workroom at the back of the little shop she had just opened way back in January 2009. I was in love. I said addiction and I meant it. I kept going back to her blog hoping she would post more and more photos like it. Turned out she was a lot more than just decor and I would dutifully read her blog posts in spite of the fact she didn’t show me more of the photos I wanted. (…And then I would click back in time and look at those photos again!)

Oh dear, I’ve just realised I have to confess another obsession along the way in this story! I LOVE pattern and colour and sooth my obsessive soul by buying fabric. (I took up patchwork simply to have a reason to buy more fabric.) I’ve always dreamed of designing fabric and lo and behold, Melissa did just that! A lovely funky retro-vibed, colour effusive set of fabric designs, which of course I had to buy, after all I “knew” the designer!

She had the perfect workspace, a gorgeous little shop, a fabric range, was selling her own paintings in her shop, what more could this girl do that I coveted?

A little skip in the story now to Serena Star Leonard. I met Serena (not “met” this time as it was a real analogue meeting) a couple of years ago in a personal development course. She was such an interesting person! She had given up her career and was writing a book on “How To Retire In 12 Months” while she was actually doing it! I was more than a little bit fascinated and could see the road ahead to my workroom/shop/fabric range/successful art career was going to be paved with “retiring” from my day job (I never really acquired a career). I bought her book when it first appeared and signed up for her Website Launchpad course and birthed “The Artling”.

Meanwhile, Serena was retiring – in her own special way. She sold just about all she owned, organised her working life so she could do it from anywhere in the world whenever she wanted to and set off to travel the world and live the life of “no fixed abode” indefinitely. Serena’s passion also includes helping others so she forged a partnership with World Vision and started her own fund raising project as well. Not shabby at all! I’m pretty much a home body and love to love my space, so endless world travel is not a draw card for me, however, her exciting approach is of course, transferable to many different lifestyles.

What are my dreams?

The plans I had for “The Artling” stalled (due to reasons outlined in my last post) and I am now at the point where I either pick it up again and run or file it under “not quite” and move on. My mind is asking questions of me. Have I failed? Will I fail again if I try again? What if I’m successful and a) get too busy, b) run out of art and/or c) get sidetracked (again)? My other mind is answering them. You are a successful artist. You didn’t fail, and your success will grow. You will deal with a, b and c because you will have suddenly switched personalities and become organised, efficient and perfect but without the negative side effects perfectionism brings. Oh dear. I’m confused!

How do we bring about our life of dreams?

Melissa threw a spanner in the works with her recent post in which she honestly discusses the real facts of her life (and I must say, I again found a reason to admire her). She is closing her shop (for a variety of reasons) and has gone back to working a day job. Turns out being a famous designer isn’t necessarily enough to pay the bills. She does have a fabulous attitude to it though.

Serena is living her life of dreams and will soon be offering her Website Launchpad course again for another bunch of people who are ready to live theirs. (I hope you’ll join in. Serena is a dynamo!) In writing this I’ve come to realise that while I see the reality in Melissa’s situation I still believe it is possible to emulate Serena.

Is it possible to follow your passion and order a side of realism?

Truthfully, I think it’s the best way. My dream is to create the art I want to make and have a market for it whilst being surrounded with like minded people – my “tribe”. I know my local market is too small to be able to contribute more than just a little to that dream. The internet provides access to a world of possible friends, customers and opportunities. I think I know what my decision is. I won’t be filing “The Artling” away, but reinvigorating it and building it up to be what I dreamed in the first place. And keeping it real – in the true sense of the words.

The drawings in this post are from my 365 day challenge “An Emotional Year”.  I’m making a tiny drawing a day of a different emotion.  I don’t actually do them every day.  It is my goal, but I don’t always get it done.  I post them to my 365 day challenge page intermittently and you can see others there.
Pigma Micron and ink.

Today I’m putting it all behind and simply writing some words. I strive to one day come close to achieving what I believe to be the Queen’s motto – “Don’t complain and don’t explain”, but today will be yet another when I fall short, a long way short!

I have in mind that I must have wasted January although I cannot recall it at all. In early February my elderly mother fell on the footpath outside her neighbours house. Luckily it wasn’t long before someone spotted her and helped. She was taken to hospital and a fractured right wrist seemed a wonderful escape when we looked at her purple and black face and neck.

My mother has a profound faith in God and it is hard not to believe when you look at all the good that comes out of the bad in her life. Fractured right wrist on a right handed lady. She would not be able to look after herself at home and my home is not suitable. God smiled and she was accepted at the local private hospital and they agreed to keep her until the cast came off.

I was relieved, so relieved. But not for long. Mum lived in a small community 35 km (22 mi) from me; nice and close, but not quite close enough for daily visits. So I would see her once a week, but if my weekend was full, it would be once a fortnight. Now she was in a hospital a 5 minute drive from me and I visited every day. It didn’t take long for my relief to turn to horror when I saw how unwell she was and how frequently. I realised she could not go home, she could not live alone anymore.

Mum and Dancing With The Stars

She’d been in hospital about a month and I was starting to wonder how I would ever tell her that she needed to move into a nursing home. She talked about how she would be fine back home. I went home that night feeling truly gutted. I would have to tell her. The next day she told me she had decided she would not go home but move into a nursing home! It is my guess that when she listened to what she was saying she also heard that it was not possible, or at least not wise.

We began the process of getting approval for a nursing home place and finding a good one. Again my mothers faith was answered and the day she got her cast off she moved into a wonderful facility and into a warm and sunny room she now thinks of as her home.

But my roller coaster ride of emotions was not over. I had to pack up her home, work out what she would take with her and what to do with the rest. So many memories.

That is the short version of why I haven’t written a post in such a long time. I feel like I’ve let you down, but I also feel like I have done the opposite for the people in my life here. I hope you will understand. I originally wanted to keep personal life out of this blog, but art and life are inseparable.

This is a sketch I made way back in 2006 on my Mum’s birthday.

Click on image for a larger view

I went to life drawing for the first time in ages. It’s a fairly new group with lots of new life drawers and even the models are new. All this freshness brought me to thinking about what life drawing really is – and what it isn’t.

My first life drawing experience was over 20 years ago and I still don’t know if I ever would have tried it if the teacher hadn’t tricked me into thinking it was on a different day. I found the idea of drawing the naked human body quite confronting. I’d been brought up in a highly modest family and hadn’t seen many nude bodies. I thought there was no way you could sit there and stare at a naked body – all of it – without, well, letting your mind wander. But I learned very quickly I was wrong.

Life drawing is for artists as jogging is for athletes – essential practice. It trains your ‘eye’ and your hand. What happens when you are sitting there staring at that naked body is that it becomes a challenge of shape and tone. The poses the model does are timed. The first half dozen or so are very fast so you have to draw quickly. This is called loosening up, but what is really happening is that your analytical brains hold over you is loosened. Your creative brain and the part that truly sees are set free from their restrictions.

Click on Image for a larger view

But if you are now really seeing, well, um, isn’t that even a bit more embarrassing? Surprisingly no. What you are really seeing now is the form, the shapes, the shadows, midtones (and there are many!) and the highlights. You have shifted into your artist brain and it is not interested in nudity!

Many times while drawing from life, for some reason especially when its a longer pose, I ‘come to’ at the end to find my gorgeous drawing is missing an entire limb! I get so engrossed in the shapes, how they relate to each other, how the tones juxtapose and how it relates to the background that I can overlook the obvious. If I can forget an entire arm believe me I haven’t taken any notice of the naughty bits. Not that I don’t draw the naughty bits, its just that they are simply more shape/tone/line challenges.

Click on Image for a larger view

If you are thinking of taking the plunge and signing up for a life drawing class, go ahead. Will you be any good at it? I’m sure you will be just as good as we all were in our first one! It takes time to train to be an good athlete, and even longer to become an elite one. The same goes for drawing so be kind to yourself when you start out. It might sound like a long road to success but it will be paved with many small successes and triumphs that you will revel in. Go on, try it!

P.S. If you are in the Coffs area try the life drawing group at Cr8Studios.

These drawings were done in my self-made journal.  It has lots of different types of paper and page sizes in it.  I used a 2B pencil, grey brush pen and artline.  I’m a bit rusty!!!

Click image for a larger view

I am obsessed with colour. My children hate general conversation with me when colour comes up. Recently I was trying to describe which type of coffee I wanted by the colour of its pod. I was having great difficulty describing the deep coral, no, the dark orangey crimson, when my daughter said “Do you mean this red one?”. I’d never thought of it as red! (Each time I make one of those coffees since then I always think to myself, “Huh, red!”)

My interest in colour naturally extends to an interest in colour theory. I have been know to describe a particular colour theory book as “a good read” to my friends. I paint a lot of colour wheels. Whenever I get any new-to-me paints I paint another one. Or two.

Feeling inspired by Wendy Sharpe and my interview with her, I broke out my gouache again. Gouache and I have had a checkered history with not every encounter going well. I find the way it goes so easily from sticky smooth (which is strange in itself!) to watery runny concerns me. I hate the way its texture goes when I put on too many layers, making it too thick. I always feel compelled to keep working at it then to see if I can make it smoother or at least look better, which of course is a disastrous thing to do.

Click the image for a larger view

I bought these gouache in Paris a few years ago now. I have used them, but not much. Sitting with them in front of me on my work table I felt I didn’t know them at all. Consequently my confidence just wasn’t there. So it was time for a colour wheel to reacquaint me with them. Once I’d done that, I was right!

The colour theory book I mentioned before is the Michael Wilcox Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green. I did find it fascinating and the theory he poses has influenced my palette ever since. I do (not so humbly) think I can mix any colour! Over time I’ve added some other colours to his basic set of 6 primaries from reading some other books and from personal experience too.

A limited palette has lots of benefits like being cheaper and easier to transport and a lot less confusing (well, I think it is). But a limited pallete is only good when the colours work together! My palette has warm and cool in red, blue and yellow, as well as white, Paynes grey, raw umber, burnt sienna and black. But not all pigments mix well with each other!

Click image for a larger view

When I first tried out the Wilcox colour theory I was using Napthol Scarlet and Napthol Crimson as well as Pthalo blue along with my other colours. In art school we had even learned about using 6 primaries and these paints were in the colours the teacher recommended. But once I painted a couple of colour wheels, and still couldn’t get purples, nice browns or clear greens I realised it was these colours that were causing my problems, not my colour mixing abilities. My search for good colours that mix well began and from that moment on my painting ‘ability’ improved out of sight!

What colours are always on your palette? And what is your favourite colour theory? Or don’t you care and just paint away! Please share!

Top image:  On a recent trip to Sydney I went shopping in Myer (as usual!) and this time I succumbed to The Brow Bar.  Wow, the girls working there have the most wonderful eyebrows I’ve ever seen!  It was the least painful and best brow wax I’ve ever had.  I’m definitely going back!  (Gouache on black gesso, Stonehenge paper in self made journal.)

Bottom image:  Part of why we love living where we do is that we are walking distance from, well, yes… the beach, but more importantly a great strip of restaurants!  Our favourite is Fiasco and we like to sit in the bar for a drink before we go in for our meal.  It makes us feel like we live somewhere far more cosmopolitan!  (Gouache on black gesso, Stonehenge paper in self made journal.)

Wendy Sharpe and me. Wendy is holding one of the paintings I did at the workshop.

Wendy Sharpe is one of Australia’s most awarded artists.  She has won the Archibald Prize, the Sulman Prize and twice won the Portia Geech Prize. She was Australia’s official war artist in East Timor and Wendy has been the recipient of many national and international scholarships and residencies.  I have long been a huge fan of Wendy’s work. (I am lucky to own a small piece!) Last year I had the opportunity to join a weekend workshop with her.  She is an amazingly generous teacher and I came away very inspired having learned so much.  This year a major retrospective of Wendy’s work was held at SH Ervine Gallery in Sydney.  A book was published to coincide with the exhibition, ‘The Imagined Life’. I made sure I managed a trip down to see the exhibition and to get my copy of the book & DVD.  Wendy is a great traveller and many of her works are the result of these adventures.  She recently returned from a stay in Paris and generously made time for me to interview her!  Read on and enjoy!

Why do you sketch?
Firstly I must say that I don’t like the word ‘sketching’. I would never use the word. I draw and for some reason which I can’t describe, sketching isn’t the right word.

I have always drawn. As a child I drew and I just kept it up. I was always known as that person, as a drawer. I did the school magazine and I was just always drawing. It has always been how I communicate. Even now, when I am talking to people I will often draw to show them what I mean.

Click image for a larger view. East Timor - 1999 - Charcoal

What is your favourite subject?
I draw people and where you have people you have a story. I am interested in stories. When I’m drawing people I am imagining what is going on and what they might be thinking. I have never been and never will be a landscape artist. It is people who interest me.

Click on image for a larger view. 'View from the roof'. Gouache on paper, 50 x 65cm , 2007

Can you describe your process of creating a drawing?
I draw in gouache. I like gouache because it is paint and I love paint. I can thin it down and create washes that are almost as transparent as watercolour but it can also be opaque. You can also put white gouache over black if you want to. I don’t use a pen. I water it down and draw with it with a brush.

I spend most days in the studio. Today has been quite different with a visit to the gallery to discuss an upcoming exhibition, but I have a few hours here now before a friend arrives later. Because there is not time to paint, I will draw, doodle really. The series I’m working on at the moment requires quite complicated compositions. I will be designing the paintings with these drawings. They will be just loose sketches. I will be working out where to put the people, how many to put here, does it need to be dark there. They won’t look like anything but they help me work it out. Hopefully by the end I will have worked out enough to be able to do a more complete drawing.

Click image for a larger view. 'Suai Cathedral'. Gouache on paper, 1999

I noticed you said the word ‘sketch’ then.
Yes, well that is the difference. To me a sketch is something you do to prepare for a painting. It is not a work in its own right. A drawing can be a work in its own right. I haven’t thought about it before. It’s interesting. For me its some kind of connotation with the word sketch. Generally I don’t sketch, I draw.

Click on image for a larger view. "Madeline on the Balcony (red tights)" 2009 gouache on paper 28x36cm

When you are drawing out and about, do people speak to you? How do you deal with it?
Usually people don’t. You get a few who might glance at what you are doing when you start but if it doesn’t look like a photograph straight away they go away and think you are terrible. What you are doing may end up looking quite like a photograph at the end but at the beginning it is just a few broad shapes.

It is a good idea to take a friend with you because people are less likely to speak to you if there are two of you. I don’t mind if people just want a quick look and to say hello but it is quite difficult to have someone standing close by while you are drawing. And it is quite a surprise but they often stand in front of you, blocking the view you are drawing!

I don’t do much drawing out and about while I’m at home. I mostly do it when I’m travelling. I have in the past done a series around Newtown area, near where I live and near the studio. I may well do that again, but I generally only go out and draw when I’m away. I would never go out into the bush to draw. It is cities that interest me, it’s not that I only like other countries trees or something! It is always cities for me.

When you are travelling and you sketch, what materials do you use?

Paper, of course, and I use tubes of gouache. I usually carry a big bottle of water and two smaller watercontainers, often other water bottles with the tops cut off. When I’m working I use one as water for the dark colours and the other for the light ones. It makes it a lot easier. I also have two palettes, usually two plastic takeaway food container lids. I keep the warm colours on one and the cool on the other – that way they don’t mix as much and it helps me with what I’m doing.

Click on the image for a larger view. "By the Canal" (4 panel double sided screen) 2010 Oil on linen 165x320cm

Click on image for a larger view. "Self Portrait with St Marks" 2009 Gouache on paper 36cm x 28cm

When you come home from your travels, how do you create your works?
If they are drawings I usually do them while I am away. If it is an oil painting, I work a lot from memory. If I’ve drawn a lot while I was there I find that I will remember it. As you know, when you are drawing you are seeing in a special way that really benefits the memory.

You frequently put yourself into your drawings. Why is that?
My drawings are of my experiences, my recollections of being there. I do put myself in many of my works but not as many as people say. Some of the figures people think are me are quite ridiculous!

Do you ever draw from photos?
Almost never. If I use photos it is usually to jog my memory. My recent exhibition was of paintings of Venice. I did use photos to remind me of how the light is reflected on the water and things like that. Sometimes I might wonder how a building went at the top and a photo will remind me that it had those curly bits. But other than that I don’t use photos.

What are your 3 top tips for people beginning to go out and draw?

1. Take a friend with you! They are useful not only to limit the conversations of strangers but you can always take a photo of them in front of whatever scene you want to capture. You can also pretend to take their photo and then when you move the camera away, quickly take the photo of what ever it is.
2. Don’t take too much kit. If you find you really need something after you get there you can usually buy it.
3. Never pack ink. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ it will leak. It WILL leak. When I’m travelling I water down black gouache and use it instead of ink.

Thank you so much Wendy.  I definitely feel inspired after talking to you!

Here are links to Wendy’s website, representing galleries, places to purchase the book as well as workshops you can attend:

Click image for a larger view. "Paris". Gouache on paper, 28 x 36cm, 2007

www.wendysharpe.com

GALLERY LINKS – Wendy Sharpe is currently represented by:

• King Street Gallery on William, Sydney
• Buratti Fine Art, Perth
• MARS, Melbourne Art Rooms
• Philip Bacon Gallery, Brisbane
• Falls Gallery, (small works & prints), Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains

Workshops available through -

• Art Workshops Australia
• Art Retreats International

‘The Imagined Life’ (Book and DVD) available from -

• Wendy Sharpe (website)
• Art Gallery of New South Wales – Sydney
• King Street Gallery on William – Sydney
• MARS Melbourne Art Rooms – Port Melbourne
• S.H. Ervin Gallery – Sydney
• Tamworth Regional Gallery – NSW

Click on image for a larger view

Personal Promise

Recently we celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary. Honestly it feels like only a few short months since out 25th and not much longer since, well, you know how the story goes… it all just flies by in a flash and before you know it, your kids are grown and you’ve been married 30 years!

How does one stay married for 30 years? I am no expert (other than the glaringly obvious factor – experience!) but I feel it has a lot to do with commitment. In the rough times, when the nicer elements like love, affinity and humour are not so much in play, it really does come down to commitment. We made a set of personal promises to each other and we have stood by them, no matter what.

We celebrated in our usual style – we both love food and over the last few years have taken to ticking the boxes off our dream restaurant list when a celebration calls for it. This time I got to tick Aria off my list of ‘must do’ restaurants. Lunch is our preferred time to dine in special restaurants so we can see the view and stay awake during the sometimes long hours of glorious eating! This anniversary lunch we got to share with one of our daughters who, out of the blue was available!

Aria is in an amazing location in Sydney, overlooking the Opera House, Circular Quay and the Harbour Bridge. It has consistently won the People’s Choice award and for those who are interested, it has two ‘hats’ and is Chef Matt Moran’s (of Masterchef fame) restaurant.

The food was amazing. Talk about attention to detail! The service was outstanding as was everything else. We had a truly wonderful four hours that nourished our souls as well as our bodies.

Click on image for a larger view

Creative Commitment

Since our anniversary I’ve been thinking more about creative commitment. While I can happily say I’ve been married for 30 years, I have a little more difficulty, if I’m honest, in saying I paint and draw regularly. For some reason I just can’t fathom or overcome, my art practice comes way down the bottom of the list of important things to do now and it really doesn’t seem to matter when ‘now’ is.

Part of why I started this website is to keep me both motivated and to get me to take responsibility for what I do (or not do, as the case probably is), so this little reflection on commitment has come at a very good time. I guess I just have to stick with it, through the good and bad times, just as with any other commitment. I had a feeling I needed to take my creativity out to dinner and show her a good time, to bring the ‘romance’ back into my painting and drawing. And so The Artling came about.

Creative Commitment versus Personal Promise

So I’m good at being married but rubbish at putting my art first and just doing it. What if I started to think about my creative life in a way similar to how I think about my marriage? What if I made a personal promise to myself to love, honour and cherish my creative urges? What if I made that promise it the public arena, just like my wedding vows were stated? What if I stuck with it, no matter what?

My beloved creativity, I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love, honour and cherish you all the days of my life. You, my dear The Artling readers, are my witness to this promise.

I must say that I do feel somehow changed by taking this vow.

How did you learn to put your creativity high up on your priority list? What do you do to make sure you get your creative fill each day, week or whatever? What tips can you give me to help me thrive in the early days of my new creative marriage? Please share!

These sketches were done in my self-made book.  This book contains a variety of papers and page sizes.  I decided to do this spread where there was a smaller page which would hide the food and the writing on the first opening but reveal them once the smaller leaf has been turned. (See both images to view the composite views.)  I have a huge problem with drawing my family members!  They never look like themselves!!!  Although the second drawing of my daughter looks more like her than usual for me.  (Ink and watercolour.)