Back in the studio today after the Easter holidays, and the first job is to re-learn how to play. Not “create a painting”, not “paint a bird”, not “make something good”. Just play. It’s amazing how much practise it takes, this thing called “playing”. It only works when you let go, and allow yourself to make failures. Because in the letting go, you somehow gain access to a different part of your brain, it feels like a different sort of consciousness.
Read MoreOn Friday I tried to “make a painting”. I planned the whole thing out so that I would feel confident in the application of the paint. And I made a MASSIVE FLOP. On a large, beautifully stretched paper canvas. It was painful.
Today, I remembered that it can’t ever be about the finished piece. It can only be about the process. Starting and not knowing how it will end up. Getting lost in it. Making delicious marks and new discoveries.
Art is such a weird thing. The best art happens when you play, when you switch off any thoughts about whether anyone else will like what you make, and make for yourself. It’s like a little cave you have to go into, to find the source. And then you can slowly move outwards again, pretending the world isn’t there and no one is looking.
Read MoreFor over a week I’ve done bad painting. Little bits of this and that, that didn’t hold together, didn’t feel good, didn’t amount to anything. I told a friend I’d forgotten how to paint. She said, you can’t forget how to paint, you just need to play. She was right, partly. I had forgotten to play, but there was more to it than this…
If you’re in that space where everything you make sucks, and where everyone else appears to be better than you, hold onto these three things…
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