painting

February 10, 2026

Balancing Life with Art: Techniques for Clarity

Grounding (2026) Watercolour on sheet music

I talked in my last post of restarting my year as it went a little awry mid January. I have reset my workload so it is a little more balanced and, I have started a cycle of decluttering both my home, art room and mind. Clearing my mind has not been something I have ever been able to achieve; when someone says “empty your mind,” what happens to me is that my brain panics, and every thought I have ever had starts whizzing around my head like a chaotic whirlwind.

However, I can use art as a means to focus. There are several exercises I have written for journaling that really work for me. By concentrating on the process, whether it’s the soft, flowing motions of watercolours or the crisp lines from a black fine liner (and I believe both mediums together create a marriage made in heaven!), I’ve found a way to channel that restless energy. It’s easy to block out the challenges of life by mark-making in those small, delicious moments of creativity. The more I practice these techniques, the easier it becomes for me to not ’empty my mind’ entirely but rather to recall the calming process of the art exercises. This recall can gently bring me back to the present moment, offering a reprieve from any noise that might be in my head.

Today was a bit different; the day was a little brighter and clearer, allowing me to enjoy a long walk, a luxury I haven’t had time to indulge in recently. Instead, I have been settling for several shorter walks, which are nice but don’t quite compare to the liberating feeling longer time out. It was refreshing to have the chance immerse myself in my audiobook.

In addition, I have been writing workshops that I am running soon and developing lessons to sell online. Of course, I’ve been immersing myself in making the art necessary to write these lessons, ensuring that I carve out these small mindful moments into each day. These activities not only fuel my creative spirit but also provide an avenue for self-exploration, allowing me to connect deeper with my artistic side. My commitment to maintaining balance and mindfulness is more than just a goal; it’s becoming an integral part of my life.

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February 11, 2025

Mastering the Art of ‘Being’

I stopped to look at the tree I pass each day, the reason I stopped was that the skies behind it were divided into a a summer blue and a thundery grey. The sun was bright on and off so there was a moment when the complex system of nerve like branches were very defined. There was a yellow glow through the moss green that highlighted the creases in the bark, reminding me of wrinkles that have been caked in make up.

It is important to take care of yourself mentally as well as keeping physically fit. If you are anything like me, your mind is constantly in overdrive with worries, lists, texts messages and endless pulls on your time and attention. Sometimes, switching to aeroplane mode just for a short while will see you (or feel) reaping the benefits later on. This gives you the chance pay attention to what is around you whether that be an urban concrete landscape or land wrapped in fields, forests and streams. Either way, there will be air, sounds and sights of all sorts.

It is quite tricky to get into the habit of noticing what you see throughout your day. A way of training yourself to do this is the simple exercise of asking yourself: What three colours can I see? then, Choose one of those colours and find three shades of it; so using my photograph above a reference:

‘green/brown/blue!’

Then, as i’m unlikely to find three shades of blue and there are plenty of neutral hues around the centre of the image, I will look for three shades of ‘brown’ …if you are familiar with colours of a artist palette you might say:

Burnt umber/Raw Umber and Ochre or if not then simply Dark Brown/Light Brown/Beige

While you are doing this exercise, you will be unaware of anything that isn’t about those colours, even if it takes you less than a few minutes.

Life is too short for just coasting, doing what we think we should do and not saying things we want to say. Let loved ones know they are loved and also, just as importantly, celebrate that you are alive and take care of you!

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January 27, 2025

That London

*Private View* (2025) Samantha Humphreys

Last week I attended the opening evening of London Art Fair, an event which I have only missed once in the last twelve years. As always, the Encounters section curated by Pryle Behrman was the highlight for me. This year, the work that caught my attention surprisingly for me were a series of paintings by Zbyněk Sedlecký from the Czech Republic who was represented by The Chemistry Gallery.

*Torso I* Oil on canvas (2024) 100 x 70cm

As my own creative practices embrace real life, I was drawn to the beautiful way this artist captures genuine moments that are not in any sense beautiful. Instead, he focuses on the less attractive ‘in between’ times of life. The paintings were mesmerising because they were interchangeable between being photorealistic and richly painterly and my mind seemed to switch between the detailed positioning of the body parts, the exactness of the light bouncing off the cutlery and the blurry fuzziness of the edges of the paintings. I just love them, they are wonderfully dramatic, theatrical and unexciting all at once. The collection is reminiscent structurally of the renaissance period with its grand still life compositions that celebrated wealth and status: though in contrast the artist is honouring the mundane, yet with the same traditional medium that you can almost still smell.

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March 13, 2019

Nine minutes Past Eight

Nine Minutes Past Eight, (2019) Mixed media on plywood.

At nine minutes past eight just a few days ago I asked my friends a question ‘what does coffee mean to you?’ I received mainly one word answers immediately and I have presented them as miniature artworks, some inspired by the friend, others by the response given. As an artist I largely examine the boundaries between the digital and online presence and how it impacts our identity. Here I am focussing on how social media remains a useful tool for socialising and how Facebook, enables immediate social interaction bringing friends together within a digital environment, as coffee, in a physical space.

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February 6, 2019

Yesterday at work, in our weekly student led drawing session the task was to apply paint to the surface without using any traditional methods of doing so. In other words, paintbrushes, palette knives etc ere not allowed. I rarely paint using a brush, my paintings tend to reflect how I’m feeling rather than have an intended visual outcome and applying with a brush doesn’t often fit in with this concept. It felt appropriate yesterday to use the discarded blister pack from my painkillers to push the paint around the surface with my fingers in the moulded bits. I am pleased with the outcome, the drawing sessions are such an important part of our course as it forces us to keep creating and reflecting on our practice.

Untitled (2019) Oil, Water Colour and Acrylic on Water Colour Paper 105 × 148 mm

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Tag: painting