Everything stops... but art..

As we all know there are terrible things going on in the world right now and its easy to dwell on them. Please don't think I'm heartless, I'm absolutely not, but for my own sanity I'm going to look at the positive side of things....

These strange times have taken away our ability to socialise, I loved going out for meals and sitting across from my family (without phones) and eating great food - something we don't generally do at home because of our conflicting schedules. Friday was our night to go out as a couple and that has now gone. I don't think I've cooked on a Friday for the last 16 years but last night, (the first night that the restaurants had to close) I cooked. And we had a great night (I managed not to burn anything which was unusual for me...) - and I wore sweat pants and was comfy all evening... See! Already a bonus....

Looking on the bright side of this Virus thingy, it has given us all more time to spend on the things we love in our lives. Perhaps we should all take up new hobbies, or learn new things and re-learn the pleasure of just doing nothing.. just being more mindful.

I recently moved my art in to a new direction. I used to use coloured pencils for my pet portraits and my original artwork.

I spent so many hours sitting at my drawing desk concentrating on my work and produced some amazing (even though I say it myself) pieces of art - some, I was quite dumbfounded at the face that I had produced them! Anyway, sitting is not the way to go, and I soon found myself in agony when I stood up after drawing, which soon became a permanent thing... So something had to change. I completed all the pet portrait commissions that I needed to do before Christmas and decided to take on a huge challenge.

I was going to learn to paint my pet portraits in oils, on canvas. this meant that I would then be standing at an easel (perhaps wearing a beret and artists smock) and it wouldn't hurt so much. I booked a fantastic workshop day with Jane Booth, a not-so local artist and headed over to her in the floods and rain, determined to learn the basics of how to paint with oils.

It was completely life changing. It was such a great day. Jane and my fellow student, Nina were great company and I learned so much, technique, tricks, what 'stuff' I needed to start my new venture. I had a wonderful time and came home with a new found excitement.

I started on my oil painting immediately and haven't stopped for months now. I've managed to create (in my humble opinion) some fab paintings and have recently re-opened my pet portrait commission order book. Most I can't share, but I've added some here to show you.

#petportraits #petportraitscommissions #oilpainting