Out of your depth

Welcome to my first Blog. A few months ago I took a big leap and ditched my job to concentrate on my art full time, scary but worth it. I reckoned life was short and we should do what makes us happy. The summer was about to kick off and my biggest fear was that I would embrace the long summer days and not a thing would be done! I got that wrong!

Well I July was a washout. Let’s hope August brings us the summer we are hanging out for. In the , I am getting lots of work done so I guess every cloud had a silver lining and there seems to be plenty of them.

So now that I am finally taking myself seriously I have decided to take some advice from the infamous David Bowie;

“If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

I was too comfortable in my job, and too comfortable doing the same art I have been for years, don’t get me wrong I will continue to do this but I also need to develop new skills. I am now diving into the wonderful scary world of oil painting and already I am loving it. It’s also refreshing to take some time out to just paint to improve and learn.

I have stumbled along the way but mostly I think improved my skills and it feels good. I highly recommend taking a leap into the unknown, it is just too boring to stay in our safe place. Here is one of my recent oil paintings accepted by an art gallery and now for sale!

I have also set myself a project and this will involve research, photography, lots of time and lots of painting. I am planning to build a body of work focusing on our derelict cottages and homes here in Ireland. There is so much history and social conversation about these houses. Here is a glimpse of my first one (in oils of course).

I hope you join me on my journey and keep and eye on how things develop. It would be great to get some feedback so feel free to let me know your thoughts. Ill sign off on my husbands mantra.

“This time next year we will be millionaires”!