I always see September as a time for a new start – a throwback to my school days, I guess. The nights draw in and there’s a chill in the air. I like to think I could tell if it was September just by the nature of the air outside, but I’m not sure that’s strictly true. With the awful summer we’ve had, pretty much every week had a cold, wet, windy September-type day.
So what does September mean for me? New starts of course. At school, it’s often the time of new subjects, new lessons, new teachers, new friends. Back then, I often found myself thinking ‘right, I’m going to try a bit harder this year!’ So, no harm in adopting the same sentiment now, even if my school days are long gone.
So, for me, that means:
A faster painting completion rate – still I’m averaging about 1 painting a month, which isn’t great. A lot of work goes into them, of course, but I do wonder if I could speed up a bit. Stop making every painting such a big event. Do some smaller, looser ones to see what happens. This is where acrylics come in handy because you can work much faster with them. Having tried and rejected acrylics quite a few time, I had another good go with them the other day and actually enjoyed it because I was able to complete a large amount of a painting in one session. Lots of trial and error with colours and positioning, but of course the speed of drying meant I was able to experiment a lot and fix errors quite easily. I must do more of those.
More sketching – I’m still scared of sketching. I don’t know why. I’d rather tackle a big oil painting than do a sketch. I suppose it’s because a sketch is more ‘raw’, and I’ve set up all these expectations that it must be really good and very polished. So daft. I just need to scribble something. There’s also the question of what to sketch. I often struggle to think of something to sketch even though I have loads of ideas for paintings. I should force myself to do a sketch a day. But how many times have I said that and failed?
More social media – Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest. They say you should post every few days, but I barely manage once a month. Mainly because I’m only posting finished paintings at the moment. I could post other things (sketches, work in progress, other life events), but I still have this fear of posting, mainly for fear of bothering people. But most people won’t see my posts anyway, so why worry?
More effort to sell – website SEO, Folksy, Facebook. The usual conflict between that part of me that wants to make a bit of money and the part of me that doesn’t think I deserve it.
More effort to find my audience – applications to shows and competitions.
Stop reading books about being a successful artist and actually do the things they suggest.
Stop being so bloody negative – This summer has been difficult. I had unreasonably high expectations for Artweeks, and coupled with barely any visits to my website, and only one sale (of a greetings card), on it, it has been a struggle to stay positive and keep going. All my own fault, of course. I always knew it was going to be difficult, but somehow I’ve still let it all get on top of me. But hopefully taking some of the actions listed here will help.
And, of course, blogging more often. Quite frequently I have ideas for blogs, or general ramblings, and then I either completely forget them, or write down a few words to describe the idea, which I then can’t understand when I return to it later. Even when an idea sticks in my mind, it’s usually the wrong place at the wrong time – driving, in the bath, in a work meeting, or lying awake at 4am. But I can’t win, because even when the ideas come at the right time and in the right place, 8:09pm on a Monday evening in the spare room, I’m terrible at sitting down and just getting them out there. I always worry about the quality of the idea and the quality of the writing. Usually before I’ve written anything. Hence the lack of content on this blog. I am my own worst enemy. But persevere I will. Probably.
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