Better to give than to receive

I'm not allowed to work this year if I want to get student allowance while I study, so I decided I'd do some volunteer work!

I found this great organisation (you can see their website here) called Toi Ora. They hold a range of creative workshops specifically for adults who have/have had issues with mental health.

I've been helping out with the Wednesday afternoon intermediate painting class for the last 4 weeks, and I'm loving it! I led the class for the first time today in a lesson on perspective drawing. The artworks that come out always surprise me and sometimes amaze me! I love how creative we all are, and the different ways we express it. And it feels so fulfilling to be able to share a bit of my knowledge and encourage the students. Some of them will just keep on doing what they want to do no matter what you tell them, but I find this is actually an admirable quality in some ways- they know what they want and won't be swayed from their goal.

One of the artists there is Andrew Blythe, who is a self taught artist. He's recently had a lot of success with selling his paintings internationally and in local Auckland galleries such as Tim Melville.

Here are a few of his works:

They are quite arresting in how they're both raw and delicately intricate. Up close in real life, some of those marks are really tiny! He told me that he was put off the idea of art at a young age, but has recently embraced it again- it just goes to show that you never know how talented you might actually be at something someone told you you were bad at!

Proving I can still paint

I'm a big fan of documenting the process of my art making through photos. I'm often so caught up in the final product that I forget to pay attention to the process and all the important lessons it holds.

I want to share with you the process of my latest painting, completed a week ago. I made this painting for the purpose of entering it into the Uxbridge Arts Estuary Competition, and have made it into the finalists exhibition! The aim of the competition is to raise awareness about the environmental and cultural treasures the estuary has to offer, and to motivate communities to help protect and restore it.

As always, the scariest part of making art was beginning! 

I started off with a bit of research, and a trawl around the estuary, taking hundreds of photos. I had the idea of combining a local marae and the estuary. Tamaki has such a rich cultural history, and the estuary area is breathtaking and diverse. I wanted to create a work that conveyed the emotional, cultural and spiritual features of the estuary, as well as environmental.  

 From there I selected the best photos and made thumbnail sketches of different composition options. After this stage I've discovered it's best to always do a rough painted drawing to investigate colour relationships, tones etc before starting on the painting.

 I hate staring at a blank white canvas, so I always chuck some paint on there as quickly as possible to begin with to get rid of the intimidation. This is the first layer- the underlayer.

 And then I slowly begin adding colour, filling in detail. 

At this stage I was feeling horribly unmotivated and uninspired, and was wondering if my 2 month break from painting over summer had severely depleted my painting skills.

 Starting in on the carvings, I found a renewed confidence in myself and the painting, and found enough drive to complete the whole painting over the next 3 days ready to be submitted.

And my work made it to the finals! The opening night of the exhibition is Thursday 16th February at 6.30pm, at Uxbridge Arts Centre in Howick (http://www.uxbridge.org.nz/whats-on/exhibitions), feel free to come along!

I would love to hear any feedback you might have for this painting :)

Until next time!