quotes

Saying Goodbye to Etsy

the artist's nails painted with bright green nail polish
| Anna Cull

After more than a decade of selling my paintings and cards on Etsy, I have now closed the virtual doors. The world is changing and I am changing too. Of course I will continue to paint and I will probably continue to sell art locally. I can be contacted via my Contact page for any purchase enquiries.

For those who may be wondering, the songwriting is also continuing. Our backyard studio is slowly being reorganised into a useable space and I remain, as ever, optimistic about it all.

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

Wendell Berry

And because I needed some sort of image to post along with this announcement, I thought I’d include a photo of the only real painting I’ve been doing lately… The colour is Make Rainbows : )

Make even more art

a quote by Andy Warhol: "Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art."
| Anna Cull

This is excellent advice and I feel a painting spree coming on : ) Meanwhile here are a couple of small paintings that I finished this week…

As much as I love black canvases, they can be tricky to photograph ~ ‘Night Garden’ has gold and silver highlights and a texture that makes it look wonderfully 3D in certain lights and ‘Hearts of Gold’ has gold lines that accidentally (or not) ended up looking like hearts ~ both paintings catch the light in ways that a single picture can’t really show.

‘Night Garden’ acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 mm, 2020
‘Hearts of Gold’ acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 mm, 2020

Instructions

| Anna Cull

“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

― Mary Oliver

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Another little slideshow, this time showing the progress of my ‘Akaroa’ illustration/colouring page, painted by hand on the computer. Yes, it took ages.

Both the coloured version and the colouring page are available as printable instant downloads on Etsy (as is ‘Port Chalmers’). And… on to the next one…

Unafraid (word prompts)

| Anna Cull

“The main inhibitor for creativity is just being scared…. You’re afraid that your ideas aren’t good enough. If you can get over that hump where you don’t care whether your ideas are any good or not, then you can be successful.” James Kochalka

The following six-word stories were prompted by the Page Flutter Six-Word Story Challenge. I’m also posting a few of my favourites over on Instagram.

28. She can. Of course she can.

29. She was unafraid… and dangerously optimistic.

30. School’s out! Now life’s lessons begin.

31. Writers gonna write, prompted or not.

1. Reputation shmeputation. It’s actions that matter.

2. Leap? I’m happy with baby steps.

3. Foolhardy, he was clearly not responsible.

[May/June prompts: she can…, unafraid, school’s out!, (no prompt), the lion, leap, daredevil.]

P.S. The background image is a detail of one of the new little paintings which I wrote about in my previous post.