Well, if an enormous room filled to the brim with beautiful, challenging and inspiring art work doesn’t get me going again, quite frankly I’m not sure what will. 🙂 On Saturday I went to the Brighton Art Fair with a friend and it certainly shifted something that’s been rather dormant lately.

There were quite a few known-to-me artists there, including Daniel Ablitt {I own two of his magical forest paintings} and Sheila Marlborough, about whom I did a little ‘inspired by’ post a while back; we had a lovely chat about technique and process and subject matter. I so very nearly bought one of her paintings, but sadly pragmatism had to take precedence.

However, discussing painting is definitely one way to get me champing at the bit to actually DO some; I’ve been told my whole demeanour changes once I start to talk about it!

I still haven’t done any painting yet but did at least start a pastel drawing in my outdoor studio yesterday. It’s by no means finished but was really a way to start creating a language for myself using ‘flattened maps’,{my term}; I was experimenting with how I might depict certain things in a landscape, or suggest composition. Sheila’s work was in my head, as was Dawn Stacey’s; I wrote about her too a while ago.

Many artists draw on their travels as inspiration for their paintings. {Pun intended, I guess!} While I was doing this pastel drawing I was thinking about that, and how I might translate my own experiences onto the page.

I have quite a well stocked toolkit of techniques to use when pulling a painting together, but I don’t often include personal experiences, memories or dreams, which is weird now I think about it.

Something to ponder on, while I hang in this strange limbo land I’m in at the moment.