When your muse goes AWOL

 spring pacthwork       oil pastels   30 x30cm

I finally moved the easel and paints, and all my brushes into the attic. They were taking up space in the studio and every day they reminded me that I was not painting. I’ve had ‘dry’ periods like this before, and always, the inspiration comes back.
Except that my situation is different now, I have a serious illness and most of my time and energy goes toward healing, whether is it going to and from treatments, or taking care of myself at home, it is nearly a full time job. (See my new blog appletreesz.wordpress.com  if you want to know more.)

Admittedly, the fact that hardly any art sells these days (except for a fraction of artists who happen to be popular) is not very motivating for creating new work. And storage space starts to be a real problem. However when inspiration hits, these issues no longer weigh so heavily. You do the work for the joy of it, and worry about storing it later.

Anyway, when paints fail, I take out the oil pastels and play. Here are some recent pieces.These are kind of ‘new’ in that the figures and animals that have been wanting to appear in my work, have finally been allowed in. I’ve previously veered away from realistic subjects in my oil pastels, wanting to focus entirely on colour and pattern. But regular themes like houses and trees  do recur.