Going Backwards to go Forwards.

Posted on April 4, 2023 by Sarahjhoskins

This week I made an attempt at tidying and organising my ridiculously cluttered, full attic studio. Unfortunately the original objective was abandoned pretty quickly.

I have several portfolios with a mixed bag of recent and not so recent work. Most finished, some I had put to one side, effectively abandoned. When I stumbled across the half baked pieces from 2021, I felt that now was the time to finish them. It seemed the last 2 years had shown me the answers to the questions these paintings had presented to me.

There was an immediacy about them, something more clumsy and unsure than the work I’ve done more recently. It has been fun to take them in hand and clarify them.

All of the below are acrylic on watercolour paper that is 38 x 28 cm.

Today’s Painting, from Start to Finish in 7 Photos.

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Sarahjhoskins

Finished Painting. ‘As Far As I Can See’, acrylic on watercolour paper, 38 x 28 cm

Are We There Yet?

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Sarahjhoskins

So, I did as planned (not as common as you’d think), and created a much larger version of a small painting. The original was 60 x 50 cm, the larger version is 120 x 100 cm; literally the largest canvas I can get up the stairs into my studio.

The two paintings together: ‘Widely Accepted’, 120 x 100 cm, and ‘Was it Worth it?’, 60 x 50 cm.

‘Widely Accepted’, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm.

I feel I have achieved what I set out to do. It’s not exactly the same as the original, I haven’t just made a scaled up copy. I am happy with it.

Now I am working on another scaled up painting, but this time I have allowed colour to take a more central role.

It is not going as smoothly. Perhaps foolishly, I am trying to translate a square painting onto a rectangular canvas. As a result, I am having to make changes to the composition. It is becoming a very different painting to the original. I think I’m ok with that. Will update when it’s finished.

Back Into Old Habits

Posted on March 27, 2022 by Sarahjhoskins

Moving up to a much bigger scale has been just as hard as I expected. Harder than I’d hoped.

For weeks I have wrestled with two 120 x 100 monochromatic canvases.

I work for that alchemical moment, when a painting transcends its materials; becomes more than the sum of its parts. That moment seems to arrive night after night. Then, morning after morning, they die.

As a painter, I am perpetually falling in love. Then, in the cruel morning light, my heart sinks, and I am disappointed again. For someone so loyal, I can be very fickle.

After so much battling, so much determination to stick to the monochromatic plan, in crept a rebellious thought. Yellow.

Sod it. What this needs is colour.

Quickly things went pop! It glowed, it was alive. Ah well, maybe next time.

‘You Can’t Possibly Know’, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm

I moved onto the second painting. Pink happened.

‘Wallop’, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100cm

Ok, I still have a monochromatic painting to do.

An idea: make bigger version of smaller painting. Obvious really. Currently working on that. Will show and tell soon.

It was nice knowing you, but I’m going to destroy you now.

Posted on March 26, 2022 by Sarahjhoskins

Every now and then, I have to look through my old work, and decide what to let go of. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes, not so much. Usually, this means I paint over it.

I felt good about the above painting when I made it, I internally wince a little when I recall its destruction. However, rather than fill my tiny home with old work, I recycle them. I actually say a little “farewell, and thank you”, just before they are obliterated. I’m probably not the best person to choose which paintings get the chop, but there is nobody here but me!

The painting it became: ‘Catastrophic’, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

Ok, enough.

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Sarahjhoskins

‘I Promise You’, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 cm

This week has been quite productive; 4 paintings completed since Wednesday.

Keeping in mind my commission of a large painting in “black and white with one dark colour”, I think it’s time to crank it up to the largest scale I can manage in my little attic studio: 120 x 100 cm.

‘Laughing Stock’, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 cm

I am concerned that the work has not been quite ‘black and white’ enough, so I’m going to see what happens when I literally only use black and white paint, no greys. We will see. I might fail, but something interesting always happens when you don’t succeed at what you originally set out to do.

‘Why The Hell Not?’, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 cm

The Post Painting Blues

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Sarahjhoskins

‘Catastrophic’, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

When I have reached the end of my energy and focus, and I cannot paint anymore, I feel a deep emptiness. I have to wait patiently until I am replenished. In that space where I cannot work, I am grieving. I have been ejected from the place I need to be. I am without purpose. Knowing that I will paint again soon gives me no comfort. It takes enormous willpower not to turn to alcohol to fill this void. I understand how easy it is for an artist to become a drinker (the last thing I need is to be a slave to drink as well as painting). When the grief is too much, I will just continue painting anyway, push myself even further. I cannot bear to stop.

‘Downright’, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

For me, painting is a compulsion. No, it is not relaxing, or therapeutic. It takes stamina to paint. Even so, it brings great joy. For every high, however, there is a low. To stop, would be to have no reason to live. Without it, I am lost.

‘How to Know’

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Sarahjhoskins

I’m slowly working my way up to a 120 x 100 cm monochrome painting. Using this limited palette is a challenge. I worry that, if I throw myself directly into a (for me) massive painting, it will fail. Upping the scale by a dramatic amount is a difficult thing to do. I will need bigger brushes, bigger jars for my paint, and use my whole body when I make a mark, not just my wrist. I started on A3 watercolour board. I have progressed to 60 x 60 canvas. So far, so good.

Where Have I Been?

Posted on February 23, 2022 by Sarahjhoskins

‘Prisoner’, February 2022, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 cm.

I discover that I’ve not posted anything here since May 2020. Since then I have mainly used Instagram to share my work. I’d be interested to know how you feel about social media, and the best way to share and promote work? Links to my social media accounts are below.

Just over a year ago, perhaps as a reaction to the strangeness of our current situation, my work changed. In a moment of fearlessness, a large comical nose appeared, and then an eye. My abstract paintings were now also absurd grotesques. They made me laugh.

‘Ghoulish’, February 2022, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 cm.

I have been working with a more monochromatic palette because I have been asked to do something quite large in ‘black and white with one dark colour‘. I’m normally partial to pinks, turquoise, and bright yellows (see painting at the bottom of this post). It’s proving a very productive exercise. It is always good to limit the possibilities, that’s when you have to make concise decisions. I do wonder if/how my work will be affected by this period of monochromatic discipline when I let the colour back in.

The painting below, was created in September of 2021. I have entered it into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition because, why not. I won’t know until April if I’m through to the next round. It’s hard to get in, so we will see. I’ll let you know.