Evening sky - heavy with rain #545

Daily painting #545 from my sketchbook NFS

I am leaving for Cape Town on Tuesday and have decided not to take my oil paints with me so I will be sharing little images from my personal sketchbook instead. I will be in Cape Town for 8 days and don't feel like traveling by air with wet oil paintings! So I have been gathering all my drawing tools and inks and watercolours and getting them packed and ready! I am struggling however to replace my old moleskin sketchbook which had thick enough paper to hold copious amounts of water when playing with washes of ink or watercolour. Every other sketchbook I own is good for drawing but as soon as I start swishing water into the drawing the paper simply is not think enough to cope! Slightly wrinkled paper is fine if it is just me looking at the images in the book (although I do get frustrated that the water is absorbed too quickly) but it's not fine if I want to photograph the image to share with you! I simply cannot find a decent watercolour sketchbook in Durban other than buying a pad of watercolour paper which I don't want. I am going to be heading off to those Cape Town art supply stores and stocking up on sketchbooks with good quality paper....

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Button mushrooms #544

Daily painting #544 6"x6. Oil on primed canvas panel

Mushrooms always have to be cooked separately in our house. There are very few things my family don't eat but for some reason my daughter cannot stomach mushrooms. It doesn't matter how finely you chop them she figures out purely on taste that there are mushrooms in the dish and simply cannot eat another mouthful! My son and husband on the other hand LOVE mushrooms! So mushrooms are always cooked on the side in our house. These plump button mushrooms are going to be used in a garlic and herb mushroom sauce...yum! My daughter doesn't know what she is missing! She, on the other hand, will have to settle for something more philistine like tomato sauce (ketchup).

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Time out #543

Daily painting #543 4"x6" oil on primed canvas panel

Today is my last day of teaching before the Easter holidays. It's always good to have a change in routine although I don't have any set routine, everyday brings with it something different. Perhaps the change of pace is what I enjoy more. Teaching is a way of sharing what is in your 'bucket' but that 'bucket' also needs to be constantly topped up in order to have anything to share....

So I am off to Cape Town next week and I can't think of any city in South Africa that is better than beautiful Cape Town to get those creative juices flowing again! I will share plenty of photos via Instagram so if you want to follow along my user name is heidishedlock.....

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Cockroach #542

Daily painting #542 4"x6" oil on primed canvas panel

For those of you who cringe when I paint bugs, today I empathize with you. Cockroaches have to be, along with snakes, my most irrational of all fears! In Durban we get a large flying variety that somehow have this honing mechanism that sends them flying straight for you! When they do eventually settle, their feelers have a way of tantalizing you like radar sensors looking for the next possible pathway straight in your direction! So if you want to clear me out of a room with great speed show me a cockroach! My cat however thought he was so generous in leaving his prize catch right at my easel! Horror of all horrors.....until I realized it was no longer alive! It took all my will power to paint it without bolting for the door!

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Protea and pattern #541

Daily painting #541 6"x8" oil on primed canvas panel 

I love colour and I love patterns and textures! I am one of those crazy people that can walk into a fabric shop and come out with bundles of fabric, lace and trimmings with no idea what I am going to do with them....I don't even sew (not unless I have to, I would rather paint!). A while ago I developed a body of work where I incorporated some of my favourite patterns and fabrics into the surface I painted on. I find I am always drawn back to that body of work and I know there is something else I want to develop and work on but I need more time to 'play' in order to find out what it is I want to do....but for now I just keep stashing away my beautiful fabrics....

Below is one of my favourite pieces from that exhibition. It is called "Time out with Rosie" and it hangs in my entrance hall (the little girl is my daughter). The size of the work is 1m by 1m.

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Bunch of proteas #540

Daily painting #540 6"x6" oil on primed canvas panel

I have had a beautiful big bunch of proteas in my studio this weekend to play with. I have been working on some protea paintings on some much larger canvases so when I came to work on this little 6"x6" I really struggled to find some rhythm and spontaneity in such a small space. Talk about extremes from LARGE to tiny!! A struggle indeed!

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Two plums two raspberries #539

Daily painting #539 6"x8" oil on primed canvas panel 

I joined the South Coast Art Group at their monthly meeting today to speak about Paintings in the post and do a painting demonstration for them. It is always heartwarming to see a group of people coming together to share their passions and their knowledge. What I had to share was less about fancy painting techniques or trying to teach them something new and more about sharing my passion. I wanted to tell them that it doesn't matter what stage of your art career you are at, there is always that element of self doubt that one has to face when starting a new painting. Even the most accomplished artists should feel a struggle at some point and have to push through and this is what makes you constantly grow as an artist. Painting should be less about 'getting it right' and more about painting because it's what you love to do! The relationship you have with that paint and the connection you feel when you are moving it around on the canvas should be your focus. 'Getting it right' should never be your goal....if we only do that which we think we can get 'right' we would never do! Daily painting has taught me so much about being comfortable with making mistakes....being comfortable with the times when images just don't work and most importantly it has taught me to dig deep and triumph when the creature of self doubt sits on your shoulder! While I had no exciting materials or new techniques to share (what I do is really quite traditional)  I hope I inspired just a few to go home and paint....for no reason other than the joy it gives them!

Thank you South Coast Art Group for inviting me to join you. Today I share my demonstration painting. Just for the record the creature of self doubt really taps on your shoulder when you volunteer to start and complete a daily painting in front of an audience of people you don't know, talking while you paint (which I never do I am normally SO focused) but I think I did it! We all can if only we try.....

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