Even though I haven’t been posting, I’ve actually been doing a lot of art! Huzzah!

I’ll start with this big piece I’ve been working on over the last month.

About 5 years ago when I was in my first year of university I created a smaller version of this piece. It was based on my final project for A Level art, and was an abstracted version of my view from my halls in Russell Square.

Although it was a little bit hotel-lobbey-artish, I liked it and decided to start a MUCH bigger version of it the following year.

The canvas had been sitting in my room for a few years untouched. Since I was at a loss of how to start a new project (see previous post) I thought I would pick up one id I’d already started.

Here’s the start – i hadn’t done too much to it at this point, just livened up the paint (acrylic).

Day 1:

Also, a cat came to visit to keep me company!

Day 2:

Excuse the sun creeping through. I’d forgotten how nice it can be to just paint in the sun and listen to the radio.

Day 3:

You can see that progress is pretty slow, but that’s ok. This piece is a bit of a colour and composition exercise, which is pretty much my favourite kind of art to do.

Day 4:

One piece of advice that’s stuck with me is to rotate your work and look at it from all angles. Especially important when you’re thinking about the balance of a piece.

Day 5:

And here we are now!

I’ve started to apply the paint in different ways and think about blocking out some of the clear divide between shapes. I wish I had the original reference to remind myself where each roof and building began.

Unfortunately it was a particularly windy day and my easel blew over, so there’s now a small rip in the canvas.

I’ve been working on some other pieces over the last couple of days since I felt like I hit a bit of a wall with this piece. It’s been so nice to feel motivated again!

If anyone else is feeling a bit lethargic, try picking up an old piece that you haven’t looked at in a while, it might be just what you need to get started again.