Summer Exhibition, Daydreaming and painting from life

It's summer again and the sunlight that I can feel on my skin is very similar to what I painted in the work that I will be writing about today - ‚Daydreaming’.

I'm excited to say that this painting will be a part of the Summer Exhibition at the Gallery at Green and Stone in Chelsea, London. Exhibition opens on 28th July. Most probably, I won’t be able to be at the private view this time but I do hope to see the show later in August. In the meantime, I do recommend that you go and see it in person - this exhibition is known for the great variety of works it offers and I’m sure every single person will find something they love. It’s also a great representation of the newest trends in contemporary painting.

 

My painting for this show started as a sketch. Last year we spent a part of our summer holidays in a small village by the sea, staying in a cottage with lovely daylight coming through the windows. It was a very productive time for me; partly because I didn’t bring any work with me (yes, I used to work during holidays and no, luckily I don’t do it anymore), and partly because it was the first time I was truly able to paint during a family holiday. As often happens when there’s no pressure, I thrived and finished our stay with a few sketches. 

My children love dogs. Not just our dog, which is already a subject of many paintings, drawings, songs and poems; they love all dogs. It seems like there’s nothing more comforting than cuddles with our lovely Goya and on that particular morning, my son took a nap during one of those cuddling sessions. I started sketching and quickly realised I would need a reference photo as the painting process swallowed me completely. I was right. It was one of those paintings that took ten times longer than I anticipated, I couldn’t quite finish it - until one day, much much later, I did. It’s small: 42cm in width, 30cm in height but it’s really one of these few paintings that I’m entirely happy with. I feel like the love I poured into this canvas shows and it makes me even more happy that it’s being noticed. If you like this painting and would like to see it in person, I highly recommend that you visit the Gallery G&S show.

 

 

Lastly, I wanted to speak to you a little bit about my process and challenges of painting. This year I felt like I experienced a lot of rejection - I did many difficult things and many of them didn’t work out. I guess if you put yourself out there, you’re in a vulnerable position and getting hurt is a possibility. It would be easy to cling onto these feelings (and I did, for a while) but once this grief ended, I checked in with myself and noticed two things that I’m proud of - and they’re strongly connected to each other.

 

First, my resolution for this year was to paint more from life. I’ve been painting for a relatively long time now and I notice that the painters I look up to most, have a lot of experience in painting from life. I know how it speeds up the progress, I can see how different their work is and I just knew it was the way to go. I started small, doing a sketch from life every day in January. I got into the habit and it did get a bit easier. I did a few small paintings that I was happy with (see the one below). The first quarter of the year was quite difficult for me as there was an illness in my family so I couldn’t really focus on work but then, when everything calmed down, I was able to start organising alla prima sessions with models and it became a regular thing - which leads me to my second thought.

 

One thing that blocked me from painting from life were my insecurities. 

I felt like I wasn’t good enough, like I still needed to learn more before people saw me paint and this ridiculous anxiety became a form of self sabotage: it stopped me from progressing. I literally forced myself to get out there and paint and I can’t emphasise what a great experience it became. And, most importantly, the stage fright is gone. It’s wild how when you’re a painter (creative? Human?) all the drama happens in your head. I often joke about the silent suffering of painters but I also know it’s an extreme effort to overcome the obstacles in one’s head and I’m truly glad I worked on this one. 

 

Here’s a little step by step from a sketch that I did from life in January.

 

I started with a pencil sketch.I then reworked (and adjusted) the sketch with ink. When it dried, I did a wipe out on top of my sketch and aftetr that I went straight in with oil paint.

This careful approach isn’t something I’ve always done but it teaches me patience and attention to detail. I truly think it’s worth trying, even if you think it’s not your thing. 

As always, the most exciting part about painting is not only learning about the world, but also about yourself.