Art making ideasi
Ideas. Inspiration. A little creative mischief.
If you’re drawn to abstract and semi-abstract art, sketchbooks, colour and a little creative mischief, this is your corner of the internet.
Here you’ll find stories, videos, inspiration, art making advice and gentle nudges to help you create art that feels exciting to you.
Sketchbooks and art books
I share three art books which take you inside renowned artist’s sketchbooks and share a little about my new still life class…
In this video I share a few art books which show you inside the sketchbooks of three renowned artists, I take you inside my latest sketchbook and I chat a little about my new still life class; The Still Life Lab.
Barbara Rae Arctic Sketchbooks, published by the Royal Academy of Art 2023
David Hockney, A Yorkshire Sketchbook, published by The Royal Academy 2011 (Link to examples of Hockney’s sketchbooks on his website)
Picasso Sketchbooks the book showed is called Sketchbooks of Picasso Je Suis Le Cahier by Arnold Glimcher and Marc Glimcher published by Thames and Hudson. 1996 (Link to an article about Picasso’s Sketchbooks)
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How to make a simple sketchbook
Learn how to make a simple concertina book which can be turned into a more regular sketchbook with a little glue…
In this video I show you how to make a simple sketchbook from one large piece of paper. The bigger sketchbook in the video is made from an A1 sheet and the smaller one is made from an A3 sheet.
I make these simple one page sketchbooks very frequently and have for many years. There is something extremely tactile and pleasing about making a simple art book. I like the fact that it’s just one piece of paper, no pressure, no expectations, it feels expansive and freeing.
The great thing is that you can make them from any paper you have that you can fold and you can make them from abandoned art experiments or drawings if you’d like to…. in the video I am using paper which is approximately 150gsm in weight.
Art and life: sketchbooks, paintings and art books
Tracing how my sketchbooks influence my paintings and sharing some favourite art books…
In this video I show you some new completed paintings and trace their origin back to some old sketchbook pages. I share a couple of my favourite art books, talk a little about art and life and share some of my latest sketchbook meanderings…
The artists and books I mention:
Angie Lewin: Plants and Places by Angie Lewin, published by Merrell 2010
Barbara Rae: Barbara Rae, words by Bill Hare, Andrew Lambirth & Gareth Wardell, published by Lund Humphries in 2008
Available paintings
Online art classes
Searching for joy and delight
A tour through my mixed media sketchbook and a speedy art demo using Indian ink
Music Credit: Supine by Peter Sandberg via Epidemic Sound.
In this video I take you inside my mixed media sketchbook and share a speedy art demonstration experimenting with ink…
I often write notes to myself about my art, things I want to explore, things to remember, ideas to expand upon, fragments and whispers I want to capture.
Sometimes I list the things I want to do more of or the things I want do less of…
I’ve always found writing to be a useful way to think…by pouring words onto a page, I organise and clarify my thoughts and bring light to what I believe.
Joyful abandon
Recently a phrase has repeated itself in my notes and thoughts in terms of how I want my art to feel. “Joyful abandon.” has appeared twice in my notes… I only noticed it when I read back through them. And then I noticed I’d written it not once, but twice, on different days…in the same week. A subconscious thought made visible.
And what did I mean? I think I meant I want joy and delight to be the things I seek in my art making, my north star…
In this season of my life I want to lean-in to what I find and feel to be joyful…and perhaps abandon the things that don’t support this. There is something unapologetic, exuberant and enthusiastic about the concept of ‘joyful abandon’ that resonates with me. A lack of inhibition and constraint that feels expansive.
When there is so much darkness and difficulty in the world, it may perhaps sound naive of me to be seeking joy. The last few years have been a little challenging for me, I have struggled with some ongoing health issues and various other challenges, and it is exactly this difficulty that has made me more attuned to joy, more keen to seek it out, to celebrate it and appreciate it….
Seek what you value in your art
Creating art isn’t always easy, there will often be problems to solve, fallow seasons, perhaps times when it feels more challenging than others, sometimes art making will feel vulnerable and exposing, we will often get in our own way, but making a decision to seek out what you value the most and do less of the things that don’t serve this seems like a good ambition to me…
Art demo: abstract painting inspired by shapes
A practical tutorial about painting abstract pages inspired by shapes…
Music Credit: Supine by Peter Sandberg via Epidemic Music.
In today’s video I demonstrate a way to build up an abstract painting using layers of acrylic paint and shapes. I take some of the shapes from a previous drawing exercise and use them to develop striking abstract painted pages in a sketchbook.
In this painting demonstration I am using heavy body acrylic paint from Sennelier in a Daler Rowney A3 Sketchbook which has 160gsm paper.
This paint has quite a matte finish (although I think it is technically described as satin) so it doesn’t tend to result in sketchbook pages which stick together, some heavy body paint can be quite glossy and it is this shine that results in finished pages sticking together, despite them being dry when you close your sketchbook.
This demo and exercise is messy and playful and it can create interesting and surprising results…(if you enjoy a pristine sketchbook or are at all concerned that the paint you are using might possibly cause your pages to stick together you may want to try this on a piece of paper instead). I hope you enjoy it.
Online art classes
Painting: a process of discovery
Painting is often like setting off on an adventure with no idea of the destination
In this video I chat about how painting can sometimes feel like setting off on a trip with no idea of the destination. When I start painting I can’t always predict the direction the paintings will take. The act of painting can feel like an adventure to an unknown land.
No idea how they will develop…
I’m currently working on a series of new paintings, developing several at once, edging them all forward slowly. Sometimes I enjoy the challenge of a destination which is totally unknown to me, of taking a blank surface and turning it into something alive with paint and colour and pattern… When I started these paintings I had no idea how they were going to develop or what they were going to become. They’re not yet finished, they are still becoming.
Sense of discovery
Sometimes when I create, I have a clear end result in mind, clarity about what I’m creating, I have an idea, a plan and execute on that plan. But in this instance, I set sail with no intended destination in mind. I enjoy the sense of discovery and problem solving which comes with developing a painting with no clear agenda or idea of where I’m going, I take one step, then another and another. I found a quote I had written in one of my old notebooks from the artist Paula Rego which I love.
“You are doing it (painting) to find out what the result will be”
Paula Rego
Sketchbooks: Muscle memory and cataloging
Sometimes this way of painting can feel like jumping out of an aeroplane and hoping the parachute will open. For me my sketchbooks and drawings are my metaphorical parachute. They are the support system that allow me to start with no plan or firm direction of travel.
My sketchbooks are a powerful resource for me, which give me the confidence to start without knowing exactly what I am painting. My drawings help my painting practice in two key ways. Firstly they have helped me to develop a personal visual language, a set of motifs, a way of creating art. So when I come to paint I have all that experience inside me, there’s a muscle memory I can pull on.
And secondly they are a catalogue of my work which I can flick through to remember. I know I can lean on them at any point during the painting process and they will help me to find a direction to follow. I feel safe in embracing the unknown in my painting practice because of what I have created in my sketchbooks…
If you’re looking for an art process to help you create beautiful abstract and semi abstract acrylic paintings from objects in your life, you may like to check out my online art class Objects to Abstracts: