This journey has been crazy!
At the end of 2014, I applied to something and was rejected. I can't even remember what it was and truthfully, I am sure the rejection was deserved. I had only been painting seriously for a year and my work was very immature.
But at the time, the rejection knocked me and I almost gave up. As we moved into 2015, I decided I had no future in art. There was no point in even trying. Instead, I decided to just work in sketchbooks and for almost 2 years, that's all I did. I had no ambition to do more because I had decided it was hopeless.
Luckily I was saved in 2018, when I took a free online workshop that changed my life. That workshop was just one week long, but it opened my eyes to what was wrong with my paintings. The topics covered were colour, value and design, and the teaching helped me see that my paintings lacked contrast. They simply weren't interesting enough. I also realised that they were not personal enough. They looked like the work of many other artists I saw online. They were ok, but not special.
Understanding these things changed everything. I knew I had to develop my own voice. I had to find out what would make my own art unique. And at the same time, I had to develop my skills in colour, value and design, so that my paintings were also technically good.
That free workshop was so god that I signed up for the full 12-week program even though it was a financial stretch for me (to say the least!). Thank goodness I did - within a few months of the course ending, I sold enough paintings to cover the cost and leave me with a profit.
My work had improved massively in a short space of time, but it turned out to be only the beginning, Since then, I have refined my skills and continually developed my understanding of the principles I learned all those years ago. I don't think I'll ever be done - I'll always have more to learn and that I think is the beauty of art.
Over these last 8 years, my work has changed dramatically. I went from representational drawing to abstract landscapes, to pure abstracts, and now to disrupted realism and portraits. But despite the different subjects and styles, it still contains many of the elements I discovered back then. I love strong value contrasts. I love mixed media. I love using collage and text. I love paint drips. I enjoy using black in my paintings, and I like to contrast it with saturated colour in small bursts.
These are all elements of my own unique voice, which I discovered through paying attention to what I do naturally and what I am naturally drawn to.
These are the ideas that I usually teach in my annual free workshop, but this year I am taking a break from teaching, so there will be no free Find Your Joy taster course (or what we called The Creative Reset' last year).
Luckily, you can still learn what you need to learn. Remember the free workshop I took in 2018? It's coming again in March. It runs from March 2-6 and I want to encourage you to sign up.
It's called The Creative Visionary Blueprint Workshop, and it's led by Nicholas Wilton of Art2Life.
This isn't just another art technique workshop. It's about discovering your authentic artistic direction and creating a personal roadmap for your own work.
Over 5 days, Nicholas will guide you through:
Learning to trust your creative instincts
Understanding Design, Value, and Color in a way that is easy to apply
Developing your own Creative Visionary Blueprint™ to guide your artistic journey
The workshop is completely free, 100% online, and includes live sessions plus replays.
Just one caveat: if you are currently taking my Momentum course, you don't need to also take this one. You have enough to do and you know this stuff already. Everyone else, go get yourself signed up - you definitely won't regret it!
Join the free workshop here.