On the New Month’s Eve

The year started with a horrible, persistent cold which nullified the modest plans I had for the New Year. January seemed to have passed with non-art related events which made me increasingly frustrated. I had a very inspiring day on the last day of January, however. And so I decided that the 1st of Febrary should be my new New Year’s Day.

What made the day so special was the visit to the exhibition titled ‘Seasons Changes’ by Dr June Forster at New Court Gallery in Repton. She was (and still is in many ways) my tutor and the artist who keeps inspiring me through her dedication to art.

The exhibition mostly consisted of many postcard-size Scottish landscape sketches in watercolour and some larger acrylic paintings which had been developed from the sketches in her studio. Because of the fact that the gallery’s primary purpose is educational, June provided a thorough information pack explaining her painting process. In the pack, she mentioned the use of haiku to ‘capture the essense of the moment’ to accompany the sketches. She previously used haiku in a painting exersise at the School of Art and it actualy prompted me to change genre from portrait to landscape. Yet until now, I hadn’t truly understood how haiku crystalise the sensory input and how effective a tool it could be in the painting process.

This is the kind of gem, or an insight of someone who are far ahead of me, that keeps me moving forward. I sometimes wonder if I should have some ‘signature’ style to be recognised. But I’m not ready for that. I need to see how much more I can push myself and where it takes me.