Vidya’s Blog

Last year I had an exhibition of red paintings entitled ‘Seeing Red’. Red is still a predominant colour in recent work and the theme of the circle continues to recur in phases. I have moved up in scale and am enjoying the freedom this gives to be more energetic in my approach to painting.

Sometimes you just have to snatch time to be creative. My diary looks a bit scary but for me continuity is all important to make connections between different pieces of work. There is no substitute for time in the studio, putting in the hours so that themes are given a chance to emerge. I’m enjoying ‘paint’ and plan to move from acrylic to oils on what is quite an intimate scale for the moment.

Just another day at the office (or the studio in my case). Frustration erupts when I come back to a series of smaller pieces that now nolonger appear to work, either in terms of colour or scale. At least it is clear I need to work larger with current themes. The red ground colour was glaringly wrong; far too strong against a more subtle palette of tones. What was I thinking of. It’s easy to stop in your tracks when this happens. What I’ll do next remains unclear although I have started a few sketchbook ideas with mixed media on paper. This is always freeing although the temptation is to want to produce ‘finished work’ instead of simply allowing license to ‘play’.

I am now a member of the ‘Free Painters and Sculptors’, a London-based Art Society. Back at the end of January I took part in my first exhibition with them at the Bankside Gallery, located next to the Tate Modern. Here’s a picture at the Private View with a bit of attention being given to my work (pointing with interest hopefully!). There was a lot of positive feedback at the time and the work will be moving on to Osterley House in April for its final showing. I don’t know where this is all leading in terms of career development, however it does give the work an airing on the mainland and help to raise my profile.

Definitely a good day for sky studies. Moody, brooding showery skies were providing ideal conditions for any prospective Romantic artist or so I thought as one who doesn’t fall into that category! I was dividing my time between the coastal towns of Cowes and East Cowes. The tide was out as I came back along East Cowes esplanade and the birdlife on the shore captivating. My attention is always taken by whirling gulls (of which there were no shortage today). Brent Geese were flocking at the water’s edge and again, drew me by their dark silouettes and cocophany of sound. The sights and sounds were enough to fill my senses and give me a feeling of ‘connectedness’. I mused about ’sky’ blue and the sheer range of colours. There seems to be no excuse for using blue straight out of the pot to represent sky, a common mistake among beginners that I find when teaching. I shall make it my crusade to champion the cause of ’sky’ blue and not to allow for approximations.

Today paint came to the fore and I was able to explore some new themes as well as reconnecting with existing work. I had a good time with oil bars and oil pastels which give a painterly result without having to get out the paints and brushes. It’s a short cut but with inevitable limitations for the Purist (not a category I place myself in!). I’ve also started a couple of small canvases in acrylic and moving to a more intimate scale after larger work is quite liberating in it’s own way. The whole creative process has been alot less physical today due to economy of materials, but this in turn allows for a more sustained effort and I feel satisfied with the outcome.

Getting out into the wilds is a sure way of clearing away the cobwebs of townsville and filling the senses with nature. How this feeds into my artwork I’m not able to say with surety, but since what I do comes from within, there must be something fueling it and being out of doors allows time to reconnect. Here I am on the coastal path at Bouldnor just enjoying the freedom that walking offers and taking in my fill as a counterbalance to studio practise and the general world of work.

Have had a couple of mornings pursuing my studio practise. It’s also been a time to get organised for a Kid’s Art Workshop at the local Arts Centre. Life is very much a juggling act, however I have had the satisfaction of turning my attention to my own work. Basically I’m working onto MDF blocks embedded in plaster to form a single unit. It’s a case of painting and staining the plaster and chipping away in places. I enjoy the physical process of working with materials. Carpentry skills would be useful at this stage, as I want to do some framing that then becomes part of the work. Ideally I’d like to be able to knock up a frame fairly speedily and then continue working onto it. Woodwork was never my strong point, but watch this space for progress.

Itching to get back into the studio but work commitments on the ‘outside’ are pressing in! It’s the usual dilemma for the artist, of balancing the need to get the necessary income during what would otherwise be fallow times versus art practise. For me, my main income is coming from teaching commitments. No surprises there! Not very original but it pays the bills. Hope to post more news from the studio later in the week. I expect that even my teaching experiences will find their way into the melting pot and manifest creatively in one guise or another.

Welcome to my blog and maybe my sister site if you have been or are heading that way! Find me at www.vidyaworks.co.uk. I’m based on the Isle of Wight, working mainly from my studio. I have a number of approaches to the way I work; sometimes I paint, either in oils, acrylic or a combination of both. At the moment I’m also working in plaster and like to embed my work in it to produce an object quality. Images will appear from time to time, showing the work in it’s various stages. So often it is the finished work that gets shown in the gallery, but actually it’s the process of getting there that fascinates me.