Light and shade (and Happy Easter)

A Rose By Any Other Name — acrylic on canvas, 250 x 250 mm, 2019

“God bless our contradictions, those parts of us which seem out of character. Let us be boldly and gladly out of character. Let us be creatures of paradox and variety: creatures of contrast; of light and shade: creatures of faith. God be our constant. Let us step out of character into the unknown, to struggle and love and do what we will. Amen.”

‘A Note on God’ by Michael Leunig

Treetop family home

Treetop family home. Open-plan. Great views. — acrylic on canvas, 405 x 405 mm, 2019.

My latest six-word painting is more ‘rough art’ rather than fine art. It has lots of texture and touches of iridescent white and shiny gold (which aren’t really showing up in the photos). The nest wasn’t part of the original concept but just sort of appeared while I was working on the composition. Painting this reminded me that when I was very young, I wanted to sleep in the branches of our walnut tree, underneath the stars. Who am I kidding? I still do.

Treetop — Drawing Room mock-up

Drawing Lessons

Way back in December 2009, I reinvented myself and became an artist. It has taken quite a bit of practice to be able to say that without giggling or feeling self-conscious. Some days I revert to describing myself as a painter or a graphic designer, but the good days find me happy to tell it like it is. I still remember discovering Danny Gregory’s book The Creative License: Giving yourself permission to be the artist you truly are ~ I bought a journal and a nice black ink pen and have never looked back. Well, obviously I’m looking back now… but you know what I mean.

A DECADE has now passed since that first illustrated journal and so I’ve decided to put together some quote+art images inspired by the rather good ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Drawing’ list written by Danny Gregory. ✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼

P.S. The background image (minus Danny’s quote) is from this student project (2011).