Don't See/saw......Planning a Studio Day

Many people believe that painting is serendipitous. Just layout your media and an idea will come, and sometimes that is the case. But for me that just leads to procrastination.

I need structure to my process,

1. Put up a piece of paper ( or 2 or six) wherever I'm working. On that paper will be notes on whichever project I'm working on, notes on possible future schemes, pictures of other artist's work that inspires me, (whether they seem related to my work or not), Lists of work completed, painting colour tests, etc. in fact anything that will bring my head into the right frame of mind to trigger inspiration.

2. Plan for the day, Put studio time in my diary and consider it an immovable commitment. Have some idea of what I want to create on any given day. Be realistic about my time.

3. Turn on my music or put on an audible book, shut the door, turn off the phone, put on an apron and just begin. As an old badminton coach once said " better to move in the wrong direction, than to not move at all.

4. Beginning for me comes under the banner of Seeing.... See what I am going to achieve and visualise it. Do little sketches, research core material, from book, internet, imagination or remembered conversations. Under my 'Seeing' I plan approx 30mins into the day start before I lay out my paints/charcoal/graphite etc. By then I know what to achieve 'today'

#studio #cleaning #organization