Danna Ray is an artist I discovered through Mati Rose in the Get Your Paint On class.

She is a US artist, and uses mostly gouache and pastels. She says of her work:

“My current work is an exploration of the inherent transience and connectedness of all things.”

Several of her pieces have clever, thought provoking names. This one below is called ‘I’m sorry but you were holding me back’, and is actually in acrylic on wood.

What I love about her work is the asymmetry, the soft colours and layers of white over colour, the spaces and lines. There is an incredible balance between space and detailing. I find them very soothing to look at. And I LOVE the story element; something else that’s incubating in my right brain at the moment…

And oh joy! I’ve just realised she has an Etsy shop.

I’m really keen to have a go at gouache, a medium I’ve never tried. A friend lent me some of hers and yesterday I actually bought a small set of my own, so really I can make no more excuses. There have been quite a lot of excuses flying about here recently.

As an artist you want to be continuously flowing; finish a painting, move onto the next. I am coming to accept that I work the way I work, and that’s ok. I still produce work, I still pour my heart and soul into it, it just comes in fits and starts. When I work out how to harness the inspiration I’ll get back to you.

PS. I can’t quite BELIEVE I just wrote ‘as an artist’; clearly I’m managing that particular hurdle better than I thought! People are calling me an artist all the time lately; I even wrote it on my new dentist application form under ‘occupation’ just to amuse myself, but I still feel a bit squirmy and fraudulent about it!