How I juggle my art practice, the business and my health
Happy January everyone! I had the intention to start the year with the determination to make art everyday and be consistent with you all. I also wanted to be healthier than I’d ever been. So guess what happened! Yes that’s right, I was knocked down for 6 weeks with the flu and I think Covid at the same time! This was only a couple of months after the last time and inbetween that I was in hospital with kidney stones! So I have to reevaluate my approach! 🙃
Whilst I was laid up in bed, with no appetite, a swollen lung giving me pain and asthma attacks every few minutes, I thought to myself nothing on my to do list matters! I can’t do a single thing so I’m not going to try and force myself to. I’m just going to give myself permission to rest. Then I had these words come into my head:
“Even bulbs have a period of time being dormant in the dark, before they are put to use and bloom into the most beautifully scented flowers!”
One of my most recent paintings has another quote by me on it about blooming. So it feels right that I’m coming back to that idea and with Spring around the corner too.
So this week, as I emerge from my downtime, I have started making art as often as I feel I can. I am then blu tacking the art onto the wall in my studio to see the progression. I have found this really interesting already because my styles have varied and one lot of work has a minimal and dainty mark making aesthetic. Whereas the other lot has a smooth, abstract still life shape based aesthetic. I love them both equally but they are very different to each other. I think this happened because on the 2nd lot of work I used charcoal and that takes me back to when I was at uni and drawing with it. So I’m more inclined to create a still life piece or something with intentional marks. Whereas the other art I made was more experimental and unintentional. I really enjoyed the playful nature of all the pieces I have made so far.
I will be continuing making art as often as I can and sharing it with you on my socials so you can see the progression too.
You may notice I’ve made some tweaks to the website too including streamlining my print on demand product lines, adding necessary legal policies and making the overall look a bit more appealing to browse through. Check it out here: www.cltabstracts.co.uk
Thanks for following my blog and other social media pages. I appreciate you all so much.
Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2025!
Charlotte at CLT_Abstracts
XOXO
