My artistic process (or play?)

For me, play is at the heart of being an artist.. and consistent with the idea of play, my process is rather loose and undefined. Less of a process and more of an intention to be playful.

Even so, there are certain things that happen again and again each time I paint. Actually they don't just happen, I make them happen, but it feels as though they simply happen without any effort on my part.

Here are some of those things:

I like to be alone + I like it to be quiet (unless I am the one making the noise / playing music). Despite this being one of my non-negotiables, it actually is negotiable or at least not fundamental to my practice. I do enjoy painting and/or collaborating with others, but it's not how my usual day in the studio looks.

Natural light and lots of it. I tend to paint in the afternoons.

I never do a sketch. I prefer to begin deliberately with colour. I don't want to be too precious and lose the feeling that motivated me in the first place.

I like to have a reference photo handy, but my aim has never been to reproduce the image. In fact most of my reference photos are not very good photos at all. They're taken quickly on a phone usually in a moment when I don't want to have my phone at all, but have brought it along to remind me of the feeling of a place; to bookmark the experience of that exact moment.

I am both a lawyer and a Virgo and consequently have a tendency towards perfectionism. I like to make a general point of avoiding perfectionism in my life, but it is absolutely essential to avoid this mindset when I am painting. In the studio, perfectionism is simply not allowed. Instead I encourage myself to be playful and inconsistent, i.e. as decadent as I like in application (more is more) and as simplistic as possible in form and colour (less is more).

If I ever do fall into perfectionism, I tend to catch myself pretty quickly because I know myself and I know nothing good will come of it. This often looks like zooming out and considering the broader work, i.e. I might take a picture on my phone and crop it down to the painted area to give myself some perspective.

I let a more vulnerable and free part of myself guide the process, i.e. I allow everything I don't allow in other parts of my life. I let myself act without fearing the consequences.

Playing is a skill that begins with sitting down quietly and completely submitting to the present moment. It's painting without any attachment to the final product. It's switching off the critical mind and not worrying about ruining the paper or wasting the pastels or running out of time.

I am happy to be seen to be playing. I don't want to produce anything that looks like mastery or effort on the page. I want to be as free as a child and for that energy to be transmuted into my work. There's so much seriousness in the world and I don't want to perpetuate it.

It's amazing how much you can achieve when you let go of linear time. What might be an hour feels like the whole day. And what feels like playing is actually honing a craft: learning how to do less or how to do more, how to create more depth, how to create more light, movement, feeling...