P!nk Attitude – New Ostrich Painting

P!nk Attitude – 2018 – Acrylic ink on mountboard

Added to Paintings – Available on Artfinder

Ostriches are one of my favourite subjects – they are so funny and expressive, you can almost see human characteristics in them.
I’m so drawn to these birds – llamas and emus too. I loved playing with the FW Inks here although I still need to practice more. I tried wet-into-wet, but it dried so fast, I don’t think I used enough water. I also cropped the painting afterwards because initially I started with washes of colour, and it slowly, before I knew, became another (more colourful!) ostrich painting.

I think it was the colour palette I started with – pinks, blues, and purples. Before I knew it, I wanted a subject with attitude. The title is a play on pink, punk and funk. I call it – P!nk Attitude.

There will be more birds in this series, with the inks, in less “real” colours. I’m also enjoying embellishing and using my iridescent colours – so watch out.

This week I’m hoping to finish a few pieces I have lying around, or if not finish them, at less progress on more unfinished work. I have a few sketches I’ve been working on. I also intend to take the peacocks further, and try again, but in a looser, less illustrative style. I like the pose that I have come up with, so I’ll try some new, looser variations and try to progress it.

I saw this recent post by Nicholas Wilton, and it’s a good watch. It’s about how to find time to make your art. It’s common sense, but it goes against the notion that you have to spend a lot of hours to grow as an artist / creative. Little and often seems to be proven to help lessons “stick” and not lose energy to keep going. Breaks are good, but consistency, and being able to slot in creating around daily life is important. It’s just not realistic for me to spend chunks of 6 hours or more painting. I work full time, and I try to balance that with eating healthily and exercising as well, which also takes time. None of these things exist in a vacuum. When my mind and body are healthy, I have much more ability to focus during those short periods I can dedicate to my artwork.

Book of the week: Molly’s Game by Molly Bloom
Track of the week: Portugal. The Man – Feel it Still