New Year Painting

I've never really been one to make New Year resolutions, I guess I've realised that I never really keep them and I put enough pressure on myself the rest of the year round without adding another list of expectations(!)  I realise they do work for others though and the 'fresh start' ethos can be very powerful.   It's just that, for me, even if I make a lovely positive one like... 'have more facials, book more relaxing beauty treatments' … I still fall short :-)  

At the moment social media is flooded with ideas about the New Year and the 'New You' and planning your business and doing what you love and 'making dreams come true'.  I totally appreciate the motivation whipped up by all this and believe me I have been taking notes, but I also realise that for me to be successful it's good to have a plan but not a 'superwoman' plan.  By this I mean an extensive list of goals and wishes that probably gets longer the more I complete and then feel beyond self critical when I find it impossible to finish everything in the small time frames I give myself.  Although I think/know this is nuts, I'm also fairly certain this is a familiar story to many others out there.

So, the basic game plan for the time ahead that has fortuitously fallen after the start of a change in annual date...  Paint more.  Write more.  Keep going.

I have painted more in the last year than ever before, not because it's on a list of things to do but because I've wanted to.  I've realised how immensely important it is for me to paint and made it happen.  I have written more, drawn more, been to more places on my own and met more people than before.   As a result, I have got better at doing what I love and more opportunities have come about because I've been exploring what I love and been in a receiving frame of mind.  I feel like although there is plenty I want to achieve, I need to congratulate myself on finding the right personal trajectory and only good things can happen if I keep on in this direction. 

With this sunny disposition in mind (phew that's exhausting!) I come to my painting below, one of my first of 2019.  It is small, it is in the centre of an A4 page of Acrylic painting paper and it is painted from a photograph that I took on our holiday in Devon, last April.  We stayed on the South Coast, near Challaborough bay and Bigbury on Sea, driving past this view every day and this photo has been on my phone ever since.  I am enthralled by these huge vistas that I sometimes find hard to take in.  There is so much going on and yet the basic make up is simple... land and sky.  I am filled with a desire to paint every small detail, every tree and leaf every field and every blade of grass.  I think about life happening on every inch of the view, birds passing over to small animals and insects on the ground.  And sometimes I am frustrated that I don’t capture all of this... but this is just not the way I paint, not right now anyway.  I am enjoying gentle mark making, mixing colour and working out composition.  I am happy that when I get the opportunity to paint, I do.  And for now that is an achievement in itself and to make the continuation of this as my goal for the year, well, frankly a breakthrough ♥