Whee

It’s amazing how powerful the story we tell ourselves is.

I’ve always thought myself to be limited in terms of juggling family and art, and in someways I am; the structure of  Australian arts is not family friendlly .. That’s a whole other post I could write, I don’t really want to today, I want to focus on the positive 🙂

Over this last month I have pushed myself to get up very early and begin work. 5/ 5:30AM. I go to my studio and am scratching away with the inks or pushing paint around a board until the sun comes up and the birds are awake. I have completed three of my large drawings in under one month and finished four small paintings. I’ve still had some great times with Kidlet and friends. The house is a little messier than usual but hey – that’s summer holidays and life with a kid who is endlessly creating.

I am really proud of a lot of the work I have created. It’s dark, a little wild, silly, technically challenging. I am really proud of myself.

So hopefully I’ll have some news soon.

Whee

 

5AM period pain and drawing

That title just about sums up my week so far. A lot of the unexpected keeps on happening and my body clock is all out of whack – daylight savings! Title of this post courtesy of waking up at 5AM in a lot of pain, with the cat jumping on my face and me finding off the drawing above.

I’m working on bigger drawings but needed a little break from them so decided to do a little series like some of Dürer’s hand studies. He is a favourite artist of mine, I thought of two things while researching him recently.

1.) In the past it was perfectly acceptable for an artist to draw, etch, paint, sculpt, woodwork etc while these days I feel the pressure to do ONE or the OTHER.

2.) MASTER artist is definitely a word reserved for male artists.

Yesterday I had a very big day in Melbourne looking at a lot of art. I really want to write about that but my thoughts are still formulating also I am running out of time as today is also a big day and then Friday I will DO NOTHING.

 

Weekend in drawings

Daughter wants to go to a birthdya party dressed up as a fridge.

 

 

Little puppy that we a minding for the week.

 

Went to see Aunty Marlene Gilson’s paintings at the Art Gallery of Ballarat and came across these two women who talked and looked for so long I thought I’d capture the moment with a quick drawing.

 

I’ve been having some struggles so gardening and quick drawing is bringing me back into focus and calming me down.

 

A tired, beautiful little face.

 

Not every drawing has to come out as you planned, not every drawing has to be ‘finished’. Art is such a unique window into the human experience – I have to remember that.

bird of paradise

Earlier in the year I ran an observing nature drawing work shop at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Each class I would bring in seeds, flower and leaf samples. In the end, as it was getting colder and my flowers were not flowering I was sourcing from florists.

Teaching drawing is pretty amazing, but it’s also a battle as I just really want to sit down and draw too. I took in two birds of paradise flowers to the final class and decided to also draw it – after the class, of course 😛

This was months ago but I forgot about it and just came across it in my sketch book last week. I think it is pretty good.

Hand, study drawing

Hand study 
By Lily Mae Martin
18x25cm
Ink on cotton paper
2018

 

I’ve identified an issue in my approach to drawing so I’ve been working on some little drawings to try and train myself out of it.

It’s super important to me to tweak my technical approach – I want to be better, keep getting better.

I feel I have a tendency to over render, which works with some things but not everything. It’s also taking up time that I could be doing much moer useful things in the works. So this little drawing is a success to me. It’s technically a study as it is a plan for a larger work, but I think it’s still an accomplished drawing in its own right. My plan is to send it down to Melbourne with the other small drawings I have made in a couple of weeks.

Just going to have a look at it again. Proud. Now onto the other work 🙂