Studio Insights - March 2025
CREATE: What I’ve created/done & what I’m working on.
INSPIRE: What art has inspired me.
LEARN: What I’m learning to develop my practice.
PLAN: What I’m planning next.
“The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.”
I like to challenge myself to be very open and transparent in these entries, as a point of difference from my Instagram which is mostly just the best parts of my process. It can be quite uncomfortable to do at times, but I find both myself and my followers benefit from it.
This month was quite a challenging month for me - I found myself in a massive rut of productivity. Having finished my pieces for the Christchurch show, I struggled to switch into work for the next show which is not soon after at the end of May. The two shows are much closer together than usual this year, throwing me off a bit. I was also feeling lost after a big loss to my courier work, although that has since thankfully levelled back out.
Something that’s always grounded me in difficult times is immersing myself in great art. I went along to a number of exhibitions and events that left me truly inspired and excited for the Wellington art scene showing up!
CREATE: Finishing ‘Urban Solitude’, Appa
Urban Solitude
Finals
Studies
This month I put the final touches on 4 paintings for my Christchurch ‘Urban Solitude’ series, before sending them away for imaging and framing. These pieces, alongside smaller studies of the scenes, will be unveiled at the Christchurch Art Show in just a few weeks - April 25th.
I’m also doing a painting giveaway of a study from this set for the show and my subscribers - more in the ‘Plan’ section.
I’m so happy with how the set has turned out - the limited palette colour scheme worked better than I ever imagined, making them feel cohesive and unique compared to my previous pieces. I had intended to make 5 paintings in total, to match the 5 studies I created. Unfortuantly I ran out of time and ended up cutting the treehouse scene. Another time for that one perhaps.
This is also my first time ever taking my paintings to be framed, so that’s been a learning experience. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but with painting time and tight deadlines for art shows, I’ve just never fit it in. There’s also the extra cost which I have to take on if the piece doesn’t sell, so it can be a bit of a gamble. Fingers crossed they will be received well at this coming show!
Appa
I had the joy of unveiling another pet portrait gift I did for my friend’s wedding, who just also got this adorable puppy ‘Appa’. Wanting to create a more playful and chaotic feel, I tried using a vivid blue underpainting. It gave the painting quite a unique feel.
Once again I also played around with doing my own framing. I learnt from my mistakes and made the painting to fit a specific frame, rather than the other way around.
I loved the end result and the happy newlyweds were overjoyed to put it on their wall so great success!
INSPIRE: Tim Li, Gina Kiel, CubaDupa
There’s a lot this month, I couldn’t cut any of these things out!
Wellington Art Show: Tim Li Live ‘Gyotaku’ Demonstration
Gyotaku is a traditional Japanese technique of pressing ink-painted fish onto paper/fabric to create an image. Tim Li creates these pieces alongside his meticulous drawings and hand-crafted frames all in service of his passion for ocean life.
My favourite part of this was the looks of shock and curiosity from people passing by when he had the audacity to pull out a massive dead fish in the middle of an art show and plonk it on the table. Great demo and a great guy, very humble about the ease of the process and eager to share his knowledge and values for using every part of a catch.
This was easily one of my favourite solo exhibitions I’ve seen in Wellington, and certainly the best if you remove public galleries from the list. I loved the way she implemented the mural, and how cohesive and considered the entire selection felt.
Cubadupa
The Welly art scene really showed up for CubaDupa this year and I absolutely loved it. I felt quite honoured to know a number of talented creatives hosting some amazing displays throughout. I do find a lot of festivals can be just a bunch of food trucks so this was refreshing to see.
I first met Jaymesh at the NZ Art Show a couple years back and was blown away by the way he transformed his wall space into this cleanly presented ‘Jackpot’ drawing/print series. To this day I still keep one of his catalogues in my studio for inspiration. We’ve since become good friends but yet this was my first time seing the magic happen in person! A fascinating process, I might have to give coloured pencils a go some time.
I loved this unique collaboration with the clothing store and barbershop @thatwasthenwgtn, which matched the feel of Jaymesh’s work and branding perfectly.
Theatrical Fashion Show - Ruckus Theatre Company, in collaboration with Equilibrium and ByCullen
A very high-energy and fun performance. Not my usual thing - it was quite an ‘out there’ and strange performance but in a great way. I really enjoyed watching the staff of a nearby business watch from the window in mild shock and confusion.
Do yourself a favor and follow the team at Sector22, they consistantly pump out a range of amazing work and are seriously on point with branding and online presence. Great to see some familiar faces showing up for the art community.
LEARN: The Creative Act & Artist Self-worth
I almost wanted to skip this section this month - it’s been low and I honestly didn’t think I’d learnt anything. But the truth is we’re always learning, whether we realise it or not. I gave it some deep thought and was surprised to find a meaningful conversation waiting within me.
This month I finally finished ‘The Creative Act’ by Rick Rubin. I started it in October last year, and very sporadically read at my studio while on breaks. I actually finished 13 other books while working on this one! The longest I’ve spent on a book in a while, and as such I feel quite disconnected from my thoughts on it as a whole. It does definitely lend well to this kind of reading though - it's essentially just a big compilation of inspiring quotes and unique perspectives on creativity that always left me feeling at least a little bit inspired.
One thing that really stuck with me in this book is the constant fight against norms of artistic 'success' and empathy towards artists with self-doubt. I felt he really wanted to challenge social norms on how we identify our self-worth as creatives.
Artist Self-worth
“Living life as an artist is a practice.
You are either engaging in the practice
or you’re not.It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it.
It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.”
You are either living as a monk or you’re not.We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output.
The real work of the artist
is a way of being in the world.”
This quote from the book got me thinking about some conversations which made me reflect on the perception of productivity, success and social media as an artist. I’ve recently had a number of people tell me I’m ‘prolific’ or I’m ‘killing it’, often from those outside my inner circle who see my art through social media. I’m always slightly shocked, unsure of how to react, and have two thoughts:
You actually pay attention to what I’m doing?
What are you on about? You’re prolific, not me!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely proud of what I’ve achieved. But you’re just seeing my ‘highlight’ reel - as we know social media can be extremely deceiving. I’m realising a perception I have, that I think many other creatives also have, and ties into the feeling of imposter syndrome. I tend to measure my success as an artist by what I could have, or will, create. I measure others by what they have already created. So when I receive these compliments, it's not that I disagree. It’s just that I’m thinking about all the ways I could have made it better and all the future work that could be created if I was just 'productive' enough. When I see other’s work I just think ‘damn that’s some cool shit’ and appreciate it for what it is.
I’m trying to think that way about my own work more. But I’m also trying to channel some of Rick’s words and not measure myself and everyone by a level of creative productivity. I’ve found it a helpful exercise to consider myself 10 years younger - what would that version of myself think of my achievements now? I’m pretty sure I’d be entirely convinced there’s no way I make what I have, and yet here I am.
PLAN: Christchurch Art Show, Painting Giveaway
In a few weeks, I’ll be headed down south for the Christchurch Art Show, held at Te Pae Convention Centre from April 25 - 27th.
On Saturday 26th I’ll be performing a live painting session from 4pm - 8pm, where I plan to create a small study painting from start to finish. The painting will be another in the set of 7x9” studies I created as part of my Urban Solitude series, using a new scene from the reference shots I captured at the Red Zone.
I’ll be running a giveaway for this painting to all those who attend the show and all my newsletter followers. It will be shipped free anywhere within NZ once dry. Keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks for details on how to enter!