.....full time artist

When I walked into my workroom this morning it was in such a pickle that I couldn't even find a pencil to draw with.                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Its not that I don't clear up after myself - it's just that over the last week I have been so busy I seem to have had no chance to pick up as I have gone along.

Anyway it got me to thinking... the average job is 35-40 hours a week and over the last 8 days I have probably spent fewer than 10 hours actually producing artwork - yet I still call myself a full time artist.


It seems that the more hours I put in the more hours I seem to spend doing other things. I am taking part in Dorset Art Weeks at the end of May. A huge event encompassing around 800 artists in 350  venues. 16 days of free art, for people to visit as many studios as they can. Thus, this last week has been spent creating an exhibition space.  3 days clearing the weed patch in front of the shed and 3 very long days clearing 35 years of crafting and family detritus from inside.

No small feat  - the boxes were stacked up to waist height over the whole of the floor and two walls with floor to ceiling shelves equally full.

All I have to do now is repair the walls, create screening for the shelves and paint everything white!! Oh and figure out some form of lighting for the inevitable dark rainy days.

The last 2 days have been spent photographing pastel drawings and working on the computer sorting photos and ordering postcards.  I still have several days of computer work before I'm done.

The other option would be to just paint/draw endlessly (ecstasy) and keep storing it away for someone else to deal with at a later date.

in the meantime here are a trio of small skies I managed to complete over the week. (Oil on canvas)