Hello lovelies,
There are a few things over time, which have proven to be my artistic nemesis. these are, in no particular order:
- Abstracts (Painting)
- Seascapes (Painting)
- Landscapes (Painting)
- Flowers (Painting)
- Portraits (Painting)
I could go on, but alas, by making a list of the artistic nemesi, I have realised that its actually, *ahem, just painting. I work digitally on the most part, drawing, but in my heart, for me I love to paint, the pleasure of choosing the colours, the smell of the paint, disappearing and immersing myself in the colour and a playlist. the only thing is, I cant paint how I want to paint, It doesn’t come out right. which leaves things half finished and me, a frustrated artist with perpetual artist block. and that really takes the joy out of it which is a shame.
My husband is an artist too, he paints models and miniatures and he called me down stairs one day and asked if i thought of an apple, could I see an apple, “well yes,” I said, “round,..red…small stalk…small leaf…shiney…boooom…. apple!”
“yes, right, but can you SEE it? Is it in your head?” he said, smiling as he could see the penny finally dropping.
“uh… um, no” I said. “Me neither” he smiled. We cant visualize it. We can tell you what an apple looks like because we have seen them a thousand times and we know how to describe them.
Turns out, some people can make pictures in their head, like ACTUAL pictures…like ACTUAL APPLES. (lucky sods).
If you cant, Like me and my husband, then theres a word for it and everything. Its called Aphantasia and there is a really good video about it below, from an awesome animator on You Tube called AmyRightMeow
This is a game changer, its no wonder I always feel a bit empty and not in the right place when I set up to paint, I think I have this too.
So this year, I am going to sign up to skill share and take some technical painting lessons to really get the basics down, and then I am going to try and conquer the paint rather than letting it conquer me.
Take care
Rahford x