HOW TO PREPARE FOR A SHOW....NOT!!!

'Natures Chaos' Acrylic on canvas 30x60cm

There are artists out there that are consummate professionals, getting up at the crack of dawn, flexing their creative brain muscles and getting down to work producing amazing art while their blue collar counterparts fire up the computer and fire off emails and organise high powered meetings! 
There are also those that toss and turn all night unable to sleep because for the 6th day in a row they have had a creative block which has stopped the paint flowing. This is usually caused by an ever increasing urgent deadline where said work is required to grace the walls of a swanky venue and Sell! Sell! Sell!
I alas fall into the latter category. I don't seem to be able to function outside the realms of a near crisis and would describe myself as a permanent 'Donkey on the edge'!
I have tried to follow all the advice that appears in my inbox every morning in the way of a helpful (and ever so slightly annoying) list of 'How to be a successful artist' from the many God (Please) Help Me! newsletters that I have signed up to! 

I do read them, honest. I even sometimes print them off in a fancy font and stick them to my notice board. But I am SO easily distracted! Multi tasking is my middle name! There is no painting on this website that I have not completed whilst cramming in various household chores, doing the weekly shop, walking the dog, riding the horse, surfing the net (mostly Facebook! grrrrr) and planning what I am going to spend my overdraft on next. Honestly where does the time go? By the time I have finished all the things I should NOT be doing it is time to fetch the kids from school! 
I am now as I type in a kind of calm acceptance that 'what will be will be' and 'if it's not finished I can always fall back on my archive'. All this while my lovely friend and prompter of all things 'To Do' Karen Sillar is feverishly cutting lino for the unveiling of her latest print at Patchings Art Festival on our shared stand (no 60 for those of you wanting to come and soothe our brows) in three weeks time. (More about that shortly)

'Work In Progress!' Acrylic on canvas 30x60cm

Anyway amongst the creaking list of things that I MUST DO I have managed to cram in some relaxing Plein Air painting with the lovely Anne Blankson Hemans (you may remember her from our appearance on the Big Painting Challenge). We entered the Buxton Spa Prize again this year - it's a great opportunity to catch up and share some much needed fresh air and paint. We had registered the week previously and been given The Crescent as our painting challenge. OMG!!! What the hell! You know I paint fur and the occasional feather - not scaffolding and buildings! I was having flash backs to my nightmare at Blenheim Palace in my elimination episode of the BPC!!! So I approached it with wit and a narrative. Most of the passers by commented that the project to renovate The Crescent had been going on for years and finally looks like it might be getting towards finishing...my painting hopefully is an optimistic view of the project, using bright colours and including a few of the visitors into my viewpoint over the time I stood painting it.

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So about Patchings...you will be pleased to note that Karen and I are taking part in Patchings Art Festival at Patchings Art Centre .Nottingham . NG14 6NU and are well underway with the work that will be on display - if anyone has any Cerise Pink Bunting they would like to donate please get in touch! It's the little things!
We have planned our stand (until we change it all when we get there) and are looking forward to seeing you with a big welcome and maybe we will offer you some of our 'coping juice' from the cerise pink paper bags that we have ordered specially! 
Now, where's that To Do list gone?

One of the options for our stand at Patchings - obviously one of us can't take 3 nights celebrating our fantastic sales!