Tag: horses

It is finished!

CSM MFA - Progress Blog, Painting, Project 2, Week in Review, Workshops

I finished the Ann painting this week. The last section was quite fiddly and intense to paint, and it was a sweet relief when it was over. I didn’t even stand back and look at it afterwards, I just pushed it in the corner of the studio, facing the wall, so it can dry. Once it has, I will look at it with fresh eyes. I will also have an open-studio, so friends and family can come and see it. I especially look forward to showing my mum, as I feel the painting has a special connection to her. As I mentioned before, not only has she been helping me with the research for Ann Thompson’s story, but her middle and maiden name are also Ann Thompson, which I think is very special.

There’s always a bit of an anti-climax when I finish a big, labour intensive painting like that, and I tend to feel a little bit lost, in terms of what to do next. To keep up the momentum of my art practice, I make sure I keep my 3 daily painting sessions. Since finishing the Ann painting, I’ve been playing with old paintings that were never really resolved, working on what might possibly be my next big painting, and painting horses.

It’s enjoyable just playing and experimenting, but very soon I will have to focus on my MA project about water. I will also have to start looking at the other artworks I want to make to go with the Ann painting, particularly the film, as well as consolidate the research into Ann’s story, and see where the holes are, and where further research is required. There’s a lot to do, but for the next few days, I think I’ll just play.

I had a couple of workshops this week. One was about socially engaged art, with David McGovern, which I found really informative and interesting. The other was one our whole class did together, called “Emerging dialogues through textile and visual arrangements” with Sukie Sagoo-Reddy. It was actually a workshop I had done last term, even so, it was enjoyable and inspiring to do again, especially with all my classmates. My favourite task was called “chasing shadows”, where we were asked to create a piece of work that involved shadows. I decided to arrange and photograph the shadows cast by these beautiful glass ornaments made by a lovely friend of mine. I love how glass effectively casts coloured shadows.

Anam Cara (where I live) has been exceptionally beautiful this week, and my new favourite thing is to sit on the front lawn, facing the sea, and do the readings for my research paper. To be honest, I spend most of the time just looking at the sea (keeping an eye out for Fonzi of course), or closing my eyes to heighten the sensation of being in such an exhilarating place.

Never enter a river alone!

CSM MFA - Progress Blog, Painting, project 1, Project 2, Research Project

Term 3 began this week, which means it’s only 10 weeks until I have finished the first year of my masters. It is scary to think how fast the time is going, especially as I feel so faraway from achieving the creative goals I have set myself, especially related to my water-paintings project.

I am hoping I will feel a bit better about things once I have finished the Ann painting. I thought I’d finish last week, but alas, that was not the case. The hold-up isn’t for want of spending endless hours painting it each day, it’s just that it’s such an delicate, time-consuming painting, and I keep under-estimating how long it will take. Thankfully, I truly am nearly there.

While I’ve been on the home-stretch the past couple of weeks, my fella has effectively been banished from the studio, as I’m paranoid the painting will be knocked, so it’s just too stressful to have anyone around. I’m sure if he was telling the story, banished would be changed to steering clear of that mad woman and her “delicate painting”!

I continued drawing horses this week, which has been a pleasure as usual. My goal is to include a horse-like figure in my water paintings, a Kelpie to be precise. The problem is, a Kelpie is a malevolent water-horse that preys on people and drowns them, and my horses all look cute and cheerful. When told my fella I was having trouble making them look sinister, he suggested adding eyebrows. I think you’ll agree I nailed it.

I find the idea of a predatory, human-killing horse fascinating, considering that they are a prey animal, and left to their own devices, wouldn’t come anywhere near us. This contradiction is precisely why they are the perfect representation of the dangers of water, particularly rivers.

It cannot be over-stated how dangerous rivers are, especially ones that look calm and benign on the surface. For lurking underneath, you’ll often find a strong current that will easily knock you off your feet, making you vulnerable to shock, jagged stones, tangley weeds, to name but a few perils. Even a shallow river can be dangerous for these reasons, but if its deep, you’ve almost got no chance.

It is no surprise then, that the ancients told the story of a friendly horse by the riverside, that offered a group of children (or a lone adult) a ride. Once they mounted it, they were stuck-fast, and the Kelpie transformed into a malevolent spirit, and leapt into the water and drowned them. The warning being, children should not play unsupervised in rivers, and adults should not enter them alone.

“We Are What We Repeatedly Do” – Aristotle

CSM MFA - Progress Blog, Painting, Project 2, Week in Review

I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since I was in London. I even had to look at my diary to make sure I was counting right. I think the problem with my time perception at the moment is I had a bit of a groundhog week, in that it was almost exactly the same as the week before. Added to which, almost every day followed the same routine:

Yoga

I typically start my day with yoga. It’s sounds super healthy and together, but in reality the max I do is 15 minutes. Still, I’m always very grateful to myself when I have done it, and definitely feel better for it.

Drawing horses

I kept up my 20 minute drawing exercise this week, and continued with drawing horses. They are so much fun to draw, and though I don’t seem to have improved much, I have definitely loosened up. Also, drawing them has made me love the horses next door even more. My favourite is a Clydesdale that I call Mr Rogers, on account of him being so friendly – he came to the fence twice this week and had a wee chat with me.

Mr Rogers

Painting

Painting the Ann painting has been my main focus this week, which has been as wonderful and nerve-wracking as usual. I had another stress dream this morning that it got smudged. It was by a person that I really like, so I didn’t yell at them, but I did tell them that they’d have to leave. When I have one of these dreams, the sense of stress and blind fury I feel makes it difficult to speak, and is so intense that it generally wakes me up. The only upside to such a dream is the relief I feel when I fully come-to and realise the painting is alright.

Looking for Fonzi

Usually when I finish my morning paint I’ll go out looking for Fonzi. I’m ridiculously happy when I see him. If I don’t, I content myself with looking at the sea and saying hello to Mr Rogers.

Massaging

Sunday to Thursday, I tend have a morning massage appointment. I’ve had my homebased massage business for about 6 years now, and have a lovely assortment of regular clients. Becoming a Massage Therapist is one of the best decisions I have ever made, not only is it a great thing to do for someone else, but it is the perfect compliment to being an artist.

Painting

My afternoon paint tends to be the longest of the 3, and for some reason the most relaxed. I like to have a clear four hours to play with, which gives me both time to paint and research things that come to mind.

Looking for Fonzi

Since Spring has sprung, I am able to go looking for Fonzi after my afternoon paint as well. I saw him a few times this week, but no land-bound sighting compared to the drone footage my fella got of him yesterday. Look how handsome he is (and his friend is pretty cute too)!

Massaging

As well as a morning massage, I tend to have an early evening one too, which is handy for those clients that have to work during the day. When I first started my business, I used to advertise for clients by running adverts on Facebook (like the one below), now it ticks along nicely with returning clients and word of mouth.

A visit from my fella (if I’m lucky)

My fella wasn’t able to come out every evening this week, but it was certainly splendid when he did. As usual, we had fun catching up on each other’s newses – his was generally more exciting than mine, considering mine consisted of “I saw Fonzi and said hello to Mr Rogers”.

Painting

My evenings this week were spent painting the Ann painting. I’m so close to finishing that I am literally counting the days – I reckon 10 if I keep going at my current pace. My evening paint tends to be the shortest of the 3, though still a minimum of two hours.

Bed

I absolutely love going to bed, and am usually in a hurry to get there, which is why my evening paint session tends to be the shortest. I really like my current bed – true, it’s no dead-lady-bed, but still, its super comfortable and a pleasure to sleep in. I don’t always sleep the whole night through, but if I wake up I just read my book or research things on my phone (ahem…watch cat videos) so I never really mind. Plus, if it’s after 4am, I usually just get up and paint – the wee hours being my favourite time to do so.

So there we have it, my current routine. If Aristotle is right, I guess that means I am yoga doing, seal watching, horse drawing, massage giving, fella loving, bed indulging painter!