House Keeping

The week is not quite up yet, but it has been an interesting one. I'm continuing my hunt for a regularly paying job, but in the mean time I'm able to focus quite fully on my artwork and how to market myself in the UK.

This week I clarified ways to sell prints of my work online and met with an imager here in London about the cost of getting clear images to post on RedBubble. Not only was he hugely helpful and reasonably priced, but he was also friendly and fun. I spent a good half hour chatting with him about my artwork and the surrounding area in which he is located. He was very informative and I look forward to working with him once I've got some more paintings done.

Following that meeting, because it was close and I felt I deserved to spoil myself, I went to the Museum of Childhood. It was absolutely chock-a-block with kids running about madly and squealing at everything. I made my way from glass case to glass case, absorbing the information in the displays and gathering bits of inspiration here and there. I loved the Marionettes best of all. They made me want to paint and gave me quite a few ideas.

A lot of what I saw brought on great feelings of nostalgia. I was entertained to see the less than politically correct toys of days long ago. I'm always amused by such blatant racist representations of different cultures in children's playthings. Especially when I know that such representations were acceptable within my parents lifetime and even, to some degree, in mine.

It was a gloriously sunny day with temperatures nearing ten above. I left the museum and immediately determined a visit to the temple was in order. It was a lovely break from drizzling rain and the temple absolutely glittered. I sat on some stone steps and did a few sketches, taking in the tiny signs of spring like new flowers pushing their way through the soil.

It was wonderful to get out of the house, and much needed, really. I am capable of doing all my social media marketing and job hunting from home, so leaving the house requires a certain level of motivation. When it's hacking down with rain, which it was earlier in the week and is again today, I find it much easier to just stay in. When the motivation to escape hits me, I run with it. Today, for example, I began to prepare to paint a commissioned piece I've been working on. I'm using my favourite canvas size (24X36") but painting it landscape. Up until now I've been relatively O.K. with sitting cross-legged on the floor whilst painting, but up until now my canvases have all been portrait. I can work on them at a comfortable height and flip them around to work on the bottom. For this piece it's not the case and I knew that I had to take advantage of the easel available at CassArt for a mere 29 quid. The sale ends on Sunday and I figure that, to get my easel from Canada over, it will cost just as much if not more. I love that easel, as my dad made it for me and it has served me well for years now, but it is 4,000 miles away.

I seized the finality of my decision and made the trek in the rain to Charing Cross. I'm now home, warm and dry once more, with a nice cup of tea and my freshly assembled easel. It wasn't made with love, but it will be loved for saving my back and contributing to the creation of many more bright and beautiful canvases whilst I'm homebound by rain.