Waiting for Paint to Dry

It's true, I am. I've got a canvas on the go and a board I finished prepping about forty-five minutes ago and I can't go any further with either of them until they dry off a bit. It's okay, I decided to have a break and blog. My blogging habit still hasn't returned and I confess it's making me sad. I miss being here. I'm hoping that the fact I sat down this afternoon is a shift in the words.

This week I've been pretty much flat out. I was so busy I didn't even have time to write a To Do List! Unfortunately while I was busy, it wasn't with art per se. I was trying to get some marketing done. I write that and I feel myself groan and want to slide off the chair. As you know, marketing was how I paid bills until recently. I've always considered myself to be reasonably competent, able to negotiate website creation and updates, e-newsletters, business cards and social media without any issues. 

Yeah right. 

Let me tell you, doing this stuff for myself, drove me to drink! 

I created my website with the help of dearest Wix.com from scratch. At the same time, I updated all my social media accounts and created a Facebook page for my art. I then did my business cards and made and wrote an e-newsletter. All from the comfort of my laptop. What's the problem? I hear you ask. Bearing in mind I am not a details person; instructions go from "turn right at the Post Office, second..." into "blah, blah, blah" within nano-seconds. Having to create the website was a nightmare. Now it's done, I can tell you that Wix do it in as straight-forward and easy manner as possible. I was a little puddle of stressed out goo at the end of the whole process. 

Anyway, it's done. I'll pop the links to all that malarky on the bottom of the page. The whole point of all of that stress and work was there's an open submission exhibition next Thursday at a gallery in Norwich that I'll be submitting three pieces of work to! *squeaaaaal* And breathe, breathe damn it. I've got two pieces of work already framed, the third is actually Dave's picture that he wants me to include. If this canvas goes well, I may swap one of the pictures over. We'll have to see. It's half-way done and I'm not a good judge of my work at this stage. 

I'm ridiculously excited by this. Hopefully by next Thursday, I'll have worked through the nervous energy and either be totally exhausted or chilled out so that I'm not bouncing around like a wet spaniel. Bad things tend to happen when I do that.

In the meantime, I continue to work on the Space project. Chris' work is amazing. He's got such an instinct for a good shot, he's going to totally shine next year. It's me that's the worry. Yesterday, I had a down moment. Everything rests on my ability to bridge the gap between science and art and I stared at an experiment I'd been conducting based on visible light.

Have some science. What we see as light is only a small fraction on the scale of electromagnetic radiation. For photographers and scientists, light is split into seven colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Using filters to block frequencies, it's then possible to do all sorts of weird and wonderful things with light - like figure out the composition of astronomical bodies. Artists on the other hand, start with the three primary colours: red, yellow and blue, they then mix the primaries to create secondary and tertiary colours. Eyes see colour because light bounces off the pigment of the object they are looking at, there's also the whole structure of the human eye and receptors, but I'm not going there now. 

Why does anyone care? Well, Chris gets the data for his images in black and white. He adds the colours afterwards and the reason he knows what colours to use? Chemistry! He uses filters linked to the building block elements to build up the image! How freaking cool is that?! Science man. Science.

I'm playing with the concept of filters and visible light. I've prepped a board with gesso and a ground to act as a foundation for the work. The board is 3ft x 2ft and is currently the same colour as the Pink Panther. I decided to add a dollop of cadmium red to the gesso to help support the first layer. Putting colours straight on white can limit the effect I'm after. 

So yeah, this is what I've been doing. Oh, as well as doing various art studenty activities to build my skills. One of the things I've been very aware of recently, is that I haven't factored in enough proper breaks in my week to do fun stuff, to recharge my batteries. I've been turning into a boring stress monkey and have been of no fun to anyone. Well, I learn from my mistakes if nothing else. Hopefully, I'll be able to get this layer done before Dave comes over. Then there's raspberry gin to drink with whatever he chooses to feed me with; when he asked about the content of my fridge, I could hear him roll his eyes when I listed the half a sandwich, out of date chicken and milk. He's bringing dinner people! How lucky am I? 

Right, love you loads, the board *must* be dry by now!

Oh...my shiny new website...and Facebook page. Click the links if you're bored!