Painting en plein air

I've a great travel set of watercolours and am enjoying discovering the pleasures of painting in the open. I recognise it is quite the established tradition but I'm a newcomer to it.

A little tweaking when I got home but most of the work was captured on site.

supernatural insect woman series

Not a great name but it is an accurate way to pin down my elusive thoughts for now.
I saw the Mirka Mora exhibition recently at Heide gallery and it reminded me that flights of fancy are more than acceptable in my field. Also I've been playing with some new paints that I recently bought and that is always inspiring.

Mum and I were also discussing the real life constraint of whether or not the customer feels that they can live with a piece of art. It's all well and good buying art as investment - though clearly this ain't my style. I've actually been discussing this with friends recently but that will be another post.

I can appreciate that certain works were ground breaking in style, technique or ideas as the time but again this doesn't mean that I ultimately want to continue to view it in my house whether that be my intimate bedroom space, a more public living space or even walk past it often in a hallway. Please note that I'm not saying that I don't like the work. I'm just saying that I don't want to live with it.[The above commentary more refers to the 'angry penguins' group such as John Perceval, Sidney Nolan, Joy Hester and Albert Tucker (on display at the art gallery) than Mirka Mora's work which was on display in Heide II]

This is all relevant just now as my first solo exhibition opens in the Long Gallery at Montsalvat, in Eltham.

Opportunity doesn't exactly knock...

Opportunity doesn’t knock exactly but it can completely depend upon saying yes instead of automatically saying no. Sometimes I’m too tired to say yes; sometimes it’s simply easier to say no; sometimes it’s like I’m on automatic pilot and haven’t actually thought about the proposition.

If you’re someone I said no to when I haven’t actually thought about then I apologise but of course, I may have actually said no because I mean no. In fact, I know that it is vital that everybody learns to say no without feeling bad or guilty. It’s really important that we can put our boundaries in place. This is an important lesson that we need to allow our children to learn as well and we can help this by respecting them when they do express it.

That said – I mean something else with this post. I mean that sometimes saying yes can lead to new and exciting possibilities. Having a coffee with someone can lead to offers of new places to explore whether it’s work, travel or whatever.

I’ve recently signed on to the #100 happy days challenge which essentially is a project that encourages the individual to mindful of their daily  lives and express the happy moments they find in each day, It’s not anything more complicated than that. Now, I already consider myself to be quite aware of this but I’ve signed on to reinforce this and also hopefully create awareness of this in others.

Feel free to follow me on Instagram (amandakennedy4) to see this project.