A-Z Challenge 2023: Reflections

So here I am having successfully completed the 2023 April Blogging from A-Z Challenge – yay!

I think this is the eighth time I’ve taken part in the A-Z Challenge, and over the years I’ve done a learning-about-photography A-Z, a couple of London A-Zs (one local, and one more extended, both completed when we lived there), a colouring-in A-Z, an Inverness A-Z (when we first moved here), a Covid A-Z , an all-about-me A-Z, and now this year my learning-about-painting A-Z. Phew! Maybe next year I’ll just totally wing it and do an off-the-cuff whatever-word-I-want-to-write-about-today A-Z…

Thankfully this year all 26 letters have been posted on time with both text and a relevant image to illustrate my progress (or lack thereof) in my ongoing quest to learn how to paint with acrylics, gouache, and watercolours.

I’d only decided for sure to participate quite late on in March, and at that point I tentatively decided on what topics to write from A-Z, but that left me with 26 images to create to go with each topic. It seemed a reasonable enough task to complete in a month, but I hadn’t really accounted for the real-time requirement to first create the art to be photographed for each letter – duh! Still, I managed to share 19 new paintings over the month, which felt great…

It felt quite helpful to have to focus so intently on painting for a few weeks, and one very pleasing outcome is that I seem to have got over my initial hesitation in just putting something down on the paper, making a mark and taking it forward from there.

Inevitably not everything I painted in April was shared – one or two disasters even ended up either in the bin (paper) or painted over again (canvas) – but overall it’s felt like a reasonably successful endeavour from a creative point of view as well as from the perspective of blogging.

When it came to checking out other A-Z participants, many bloggers I follow were already taking part, either officially or unofficially, so that part was easy. Otherwise I started off diligently checking out other blogs on the master list, and have even found a few new bloggers to follow, which is always lovely.

Although to be honest not every category listed interests me, so once I’d checked out those blogs that interested me most, by a couple of weeks in to the month I simply found I’d stopped looking. There’s only so much time I’m prepared to dedicate to blogging, and I also still had my regular (non-A-Z-participating) bloggers to read/ view, too, so needs must…

As always I’ve really enjoyed the experience, and I must admit I’m already looking forward to next year…! 🙂

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A-Z Challenge: Z is for Zing

The ‘zing’ I’m referring to here is not necessarily something that is always visible in my paintings, but is definitely something effervescent I feel growing within me. It’s a kind of bubbling curiosity that helps me build up confidence in trying out new things to see what works best.

After a full month of playing about with different painting styles for my A-Z – some reasonably successfully, some not quite so much – I find at the moment I’m perfectly happy to keep my options open and continue to paint in whatever way suits my mood on any given day.

I had been intending to paint something fabulously ‘zingy’ for my final post, but in all honesty at this point in the proceedings I’m simply running out of creative steam. I’m feeling tired, and didn’t feel much like coming up with a dazzling grand finale flourish to finish off with after all.

So my final A-Z painting is a prickly purple thistle, done yesterday afternoon in acrylics with a painting knife (and a water spritzer bottle to create the faded fuzzy background) on a compact 8×8 inch canvas. It was great fun to do, and really didn’t take long at all.

I’m definitely going to continue exploring and experimenting as I go along because regardless of style or substance, successful or otherwise, I’m finding I really do enjoy painting with a passion, which surely has to count for something…

Finding joy in the simplest of things
Love the freedom expressive art brings
Every painting technique
Brings a feeling unique
Some speak softly, while others just sing…

For this year’s April Blogging through A-Z Challenge I’ve decided to follow the art-inspired theme of me, now in my 60^th year, exploring and experimenting with how to paint using acrylics, gouache and watercolours. After a couple of false starts this is a relatively recent journey I began in earnest a few months ago. So far it’s been an even split between fun and frustration, getting to grips with all these new painting skills, but I’m determined to keep going with it this year and see where it takes me… 🙂

Nearly There…

Yes, I’m nearly there with completing this year’s A-Z Challenge… only one more letter to go! 🙂

Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Yes

A-Z Challenge: Y is for You Tube

You Tube painting tutorials have been an absolute God-send for me over these past few months. There are so many different artists with You Tube channels, there’s bound to be someone somewhere who appeals to your way of learning?

I’ve watched endless rounds of tutorials on watercolour painting, gouache painting, acrylic painting, palette knife painting, and anything else of any potential relevance (and admittedly also some of no relevance whatsoever). I’ve listened to advice on countless issues, and have picked up tons of helpful tips on technique.

But sadly you can’t learn to paint by virtual osmosis so sooner or later you have to stop watching and start actually painting yourself – and that’s when the fun really begins, and the frustrations, and the failures…

PS The basic composition and stylised design of this particular painting was inspired by a YouTube tutorial by Elle Byers Art…

For this year’s April Blogging through A-Z Challenge I’ve decided to follow the art-inspired theme of me, now in my 60^th year, exploring and experimenting with how to paint using acrylics, gouache and watercolours. After a couple of false starts this is a relatively recent journey I began in earnest a few months ago. So far it’s been an even split between fun and frustration, getting to grips with all these new painting skills, but I’m determined to keep going with it this year and see where it takes me… 🙂

A-Z Challenge: X is for Exploring and Experimenting

I’ve always loved the retro stylised design of old fashioned travel posters and would really love to be able to create my own. I know that traditionally, posters (and other such illustrations) were initially painted in gouache so I’ve been keen to give it a proper try.

The first painting I tried in gouache (last August) was a beach scene I attempted to paint in flat shapes of solid colour like a poster and sadly it was not done at all well – I hadn’t planned the composition properly, or thought through the basic shapes well enough, and the colours I used were too strong and too wrong so it was a total disappointment all round.

But I definitely do want to explore further how to use ‘flat’ gouache properly so I’ve experimented anew with creating a stylised colour-block painting of a street view scene in New Orleans (quickly snapped from the car window in passing during our visit last year) and thankfully this one has turned out a lot better…

For this year’s April Blogging through A-Z Challenge I’ve decided to follow the art-inspired theme of me, now in my 60^th year, exploring and experimenting with how to paint using acrylics, gouache and watercolours. After a couple of false starts this is a relatively recent journey I began in earnest a few months ago. So far it’s been an even split between fun and frustration, getting to grips with all these new painting skills, but I’m determined to keep going with it this year and see where it takes me… 🙂

A-Z Challenge: W is for Watercolour

I love looking at the kind of wildly expressive watercolour paintings that really push the boundaries of the medium, free and loose and with only the merest hint of suggestion at a subject which nevertheless looks immediately recognisable.

Initially I tried to emulate them, keeping my brushwork loose and truly going with the flow, and at times – on occasion – it has definitely worked for me. But all too often I seemed to end up failing miserably, left frustrated with muddy puddles of diluted pigment dripping off a rather soggy page in disgust, which is so disheartening.

As a result my most recent, reined-in watercolour paintings (like this Cajun camp on the bayou) have reverted towards remaining more carefully coloured within the expected lines.

But I’m secretly hoping all this concentrated experimenting and exploring with paint this month will unlock my inner rebel again and I’ll be able to break free once more from my cautious, closed-in creativity…

For this year’s April Blogging through A-Z Challenge I’ve decided to follow the art-inspired theme of me, now in my 60^th year, exploring and experimenting with how to paint using acrylics, gouache and watercolours. After a couple of false starts this is a relatively recent journey I began in earnest a few months ago. So far it’s been an even split between fun and frustration, getting to grips with all these new painting skills, but I’m determined to keep going with it this year and see where it takes me… 🙂

A-Z Challenge: V is for Vibrant

I’m finding I’m really getting into using more and more vibrant colours in my painting – I think as my confidence is growing, so my preferred colour palette is expanding, too. It’s not just with acrylics, either – even my watercolour paintings have a bit more kick to them nowadays, which for me is definitely a good thing.

 So today’s vibrant painting is another imaginative abstract using acrylics, this time just an expressive overflowing of fluid colours spilling onto the canvas, like a kind of rainbow riot…

For this year’s April Blogging through A-Z Challenge I’ve decided to follow the art-inspired theme of me, now in my 60^th year, exploring and experimenting with how to paint using acrylics, gouache and watercolours. After a couple of false starts this is a relatively recent journey I began in earnest a few months ago. So far it’s been an even split between fun and frustration, getting to grips with all these new painting skills, but I’m determined to keep going with it this year and see where it takes me… 🙂

A-Z Challenge: U is for Unique

I find myself surprisingly curious to explore the art of abstract painting, but I do still feel really self-conscious about it – but then again, I suppose everything feels a bit strange to start with, it always takes time for me to become comfortable with new things. I love the idea of painting what you feel, expressing yourself visually but in an entirely unique way – using your own internal inspiration only.

With this acrylic painting I was drawn to creating dripping rivers of colour on the canvas with the addition of a series of short linear marks (made by the edge of my palette knife) deliberately placed to try to keep a balanced composition. So I had a basic idea, but no clear vision in my mind when I started painting as to exactly how it would turn out, but at one point early on my husband mentioned the fluid colours looked a bit like ghostly people.

His comment really sparked my imagination so I realised it could be an abstract city scape – it reminds me of when I was commuting daily to and from work in London, where I lived for nearly 20 years, so that’s what I’ve called it – Rush Hour. I’ve really enjoyed this internal process of creating, and it feels a bit as if I’m somehow painting out the inner landscape of my subconscious mind…

For this year’s April Blogging through A-Z Challenge I’ve decided to follow the art-inspired theme of me, now in my 60^th year, exploring and experimenting with how to paint using acrylics, gouache and watercolours. After a couple of false starts this is a relatively recent journey I began in earnest a few months ago. So far it’s been an even split between fun and frustration, getting to grips with all these new painting skills, but I’m determined to keep going with it this year and see where it takes me… 🙂

A-Z Challenge: T is for Texture

One of the biggest draws for me in learning to use acrylics was the potential for creating really dense solid texture in my paintings, so I’ve recently got hold of a small basic pack of six ‘dimensional’ acrylics to try.

They looked deliciously thick and viscous for applying liberally with a painting knife and I was really looking forward to being able to recreate the wonderful textured ‘impasto’ effect I love to see in other people’s work.

Except I’ve found I really don’t enjoy using them as much as I’d thought I would! To me they actually feel a bit too thick and solid and I found they are surprisingly difficult to work with on a palette as they don’t really mix together very easily and dry out far too quickly for my liking.

Anyway, I decided to create a simply-stylised cottage garden border, painting the background with standard acrylics before adding the vibrant flower heads with the stiffer, thicker paints pretty much straight from the tube.

The end result looks bright and colourful enough, I suppose, and the paint texture is definitely visible, but I’m really not sold on my little impasto flower painting, I’m not sure that particular style is really ‘me’ after all…   

For this year’s April Blogging through A-Z Challenge I’ve decided to follow the art-inspired theme of me, now in my 60^th year, exploring and experimenting with how to paint using acrylics, gouache and watercolours. After a couple of false starts this is a relatively recent journey I began in earnest a few months ago. So far it’s been an even split between fun and frustration, getting to grips with all these new painting skills, but I’m determined to keep going with it this year and see where it takes me… 🙂

A-Z Challenge: S is for Simplified and Stylised

There are some famous paintings from the past I’ve always loved, and Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ is one of them – I used to have a big poster of it up in my bedroom, above my bed. It’s a fascinating painting that always spoke to me as I was growing up, I could feel the deep emotion of both the landscape and the central figure.

Although the original from 1893 was done in oils it’s inspired me to try to create my own smaller version in acrylics, simplified and stylised even more to give me some practice in blending the bold, flowing colours more effectively. I’ve left out the shadowy figures and the little boats in the background, and I’ve reinterpreted some of the colours in my own way, but I have to say I’m really happy with how it’s turned out…

For this year’s April Blogging through A-Z Challenge I’ve decided to follow the art-inspired theme of me, now in my 60^th year, exploring and experimenting with how to paint using acrylics, gouache and watercolours. After a couple of false starts this is a relatively recent journey I began in earnest a few months ago. So far it’s been an even split between fun and frustration, getting to grips with all these new painting skills, but I’m determined to keep going with it this year and see where it takes me… 🙂