Do you find that everyday chores and responsibilities get in the way of painting? Even someone like myself with no family responsibilities finds it hard to get “easel time”. I take my hat off to those that manage it with job, house and kids to juggle with. Often I find these interruptions are painting related. I have to take paintings to galleries, attend private views, write blogs, I have just spent 3 days framing! I have a painting that has been sitting for 2 weeks on my easel waiting to be finished off, but I haven’t been able to find the 4 hours that would take. It does however have a lovely frame… This is exacerbated recently by moving to the country. An old house to refurbish, studio to build at the bottom of the garden, it all eats time. As I am about to hit 60 time is all the more precious.
I wonder in reflective moments if I had painted for all the hours I watched telly, or more recently floated round the inter web, over the years just how many more paintings I would have got done. Also having done them, how much better at the whole business would I be? The odd thing is I can get up and paint all day without interruption if I am doing an illustration for a client, but find it harder to do that for myself. I suppose that if you don’t get the commercial job done there will be immediate consequences but if you don’t finish that landscape then no one will tick you off!
I think I ought to implement an organised regime, but am not sure I have the will power to stick to one. Even if I set a regime of 5hrs a day 5 days per week I would I suspect still improve my output. Twenty five hours, I doubt if I am making 15hrs at present. Discounting commercial work of about 10 weeks leaves 46 weeks in the year so 690hrs of painting time. I have completed 200 works of various kinds. So I am being a bit unkind as I think maybe an average of 4 hrs per work including studies, preparation and finding subjects on location. Which means I have put in about 800hrs of painting and drawing this year or about 20 forty hour weeks.
Exactly why I feel I have to put in this labour is another matter. I am fortunate in that I do just enough commercial work to feed and keep me. Many I feel artists overstate the importance of their art in order to legitimise the work they produce as being the result of some irresistible drive. Mostly we tend to look upon obsessive behaviour as a negative thing, but if you are an artist then you can wear such behaviour on your sleeve. I don’t think I am obsessed, I have said before I could stop painting and just write or play music, but what pushes me along in interest and fascination. The more I learn the more I wish to learn.
So here is what I have got done despite distractions! A mixed bunch, but I feel it is important to post the misses as well as the ones nearer to the target.
This is Queenborough on the isle of Sheppey. A very fine day out with the Brass Monkeys. This was such fun to paint and unusually I took it to a finish on site. 14in by 10 in Oils.
Queenborough again, very pleased with this one. Pen and ink 9in by 7in.
Another Brass Monkey day. This is Royal Hill in Greenwich. 10in by 16in oils.
Very quick sketch of the Observatory in Greenwich park, not one to take any further but fine as a sketch. 10in by 10in oils.
This is Isleworth on the Thames. My heart wasn’t really in this it doesn’t have a natural focus. With plein air it is sometimes impossible to juggle all the requirements that make a good picture, but sketches I feel have a charm of their own. 10in by 8in, watercolour.
This is Isleworth again on the river terrace at The London Apprentice.
This is the famous Gold Hill in Shaftesbury in Dorset. This is the “standard lazy view” but I hope to return and find a few more original angles! Pen and ink A4.
Lastly a few life drawings, I have found a new group in Dorset so will be able to keep up the figure work which is wonderful.
The above are 5min each. The village hall where the session is held has wonderful light so I am looking forward to future days.
30min
The model view was no good so I sneakily did one of my fellow artists! That’s it for this episode, there may be a bit of a gap asI am rather thinly spread of late!
It’s interesting that you feel you aren’t being as productive as you might be- I’m always impressed by how much you get done on your plein air days.
I’m loving the pen and ink work, and look forward to more of these in future posts.
Comment by Karl — October 14, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
You do have the ability to bang out a fair bit of inspiring work Rob even though there is a major event taking up a fair bit of your time. As you know I am undergoing a house move and mass clear out that has taken up most of my energy and time so can appreciate all the more the frustration you must be feeling, at the moment I feel like I am attached to an anchor and chain. All the lovely Autumn colours’ soft tones and light seem to be passing by in a blink.
Comment by Terry Preen — October 14, 2014 @ 5:16 pm
Yes, the Autumn is being particularly long drawn out and beautiful. Last week I was plastering walls when the sun and clouds were creating wonderful gashes of light across the landscape, with that sort of light the local landfill would have been paintable!
Comment by Rob Adams — October 14, 2014 @ 7:11 pm
I think that finding time problem affect a lot of us Rob, I’ve hardly been out all summer except for painting at competitions and events to promote my teaching and exhibitions.
Comment by Paul Alcock — October 16, 2014 @ 4:43 pm