I came across this quote by Bowie and it struck me as so true about my own art journey. As I go into my 70’s I am far happier in my own skin, and less concerned about what people think about my art. I feel a release. I started painting what I termed Line Art (PopArt) when I first lived in Cape Town back in 2008. I honestly have no idea where the idea came from; just to paint a black outline around (usually) a female form, using only neutral colour with a touch of red to add ‘zing’. My partner came up with the suggestion ‘Line Art’ and that sounded good. I now realise this is PopArt, but hey, I was green in those days. I would raid the local library for old fashion magazines to find some poses that drew my eye in, then adapt them for my own use and with the help of an ageing (aging?) large overhead projector, project my images onto large canvasses and off I went. Living in Cape Town I could make really large pieces and eventually a couple of galleries took me on and sales occurred. I write all the…
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For some time I have been wrestling with going forward with my two styles of art, the small oil paintings of fruit/veg/flowers etc and the large acrylic LineArt/Pop Art pieces. I ended up getting ill trying to manage it all and with my enforced rest I made some decisions. I am putting the small oil paintings on hold for now. I will still be selling the larger prints of these artworks and also my greetings cards. www.juniqe.com always has a selection of my prints available and also www.northstreetgallery.com. If you are interested in any of those pieces, please get in touch, link at bottom of this post. My real passion though is for the PopArt which I have always labelled LineArt. I started painting in this style when I lived in Cape Town, the sunshine and bright colours there really inspired me. Personal circumstances meant I had to pause this for a while, but since discovering quite by chance the work of Michael Craig-Martin last autumn I am fired up again. Those colours! However my work is female related, by choice. I have two series on the go at the moment; ‘Alone Not Lonely’ about embracing and navigating life alone,…
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As we go into 2025 I am fired up with new ideas, which is a good thing for an artist. I show here two images of my work, both part of my Alone Not Lonely series. I’ve been asking for feedback on both and that’s been interesting and constructive. The first, neutral piece inspired more comments about how it showed the essence of being alone, possibly lonely, which is very much not what I am. But the sparseness of the colour does seem to invoke emptiness. The cheerful sunspex however, bely that image, which is very much what I WAS aiming for. The second colourful piece, the ‘Michael Craig-Martin’ effect (see previous post/blog), also invoked comments along the lines of yes, being alone, but somehow happier because of the colours. I used whatever colour I thought worked, so not necessarily what you would expect, but MCM suggests the eye can work out the colours and I found that a lightbulb moment for me. I would be interested in any feedback. Email michetoots@gmail or Instagram @michewatkins
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