June blog post

Gemma Bradshaw
14 hours ago
2 min read

The last month of my 20's! I turned 30 on the 29th June!

I decided to finish and sign my mixed media, self portrait collage painting. Ready for my birthday celebrations. I feel very blessed for the love and lessons I have had in my life. The up's and the down's have lead me here and though it is not easy this life is beautiful. Thankful for my loving family and friends and the nature and colour and music all around me.

Through June I focused on finishing all work's in progress and started a new job. I am glad to be figuring out how to ballance things and enjoying creating art with a more ballanced life between social life and isolation.

I still have time to fit around my self care and joy's, and even paint for mindfulness practise sometimes on my breaks.

I find art journalling very ralaxing and doing this on my break help's me regulate my emotions. A form of self care which I create simple patterns based on what I feel I would like to form. The colours and patterns can effect my mood when I create them and when I view them. Sometimes inspired by things around me and colours and patterns I have seen, but often purely intuitive.

May was a difficult month for me with the loss of my 18 year old cat Binka, and my Grandad Terry. But I am feeling glad for all the time I had with them. Life is precious and I will make the most of it, and the best of things while I am alive.

I have started a new oil painting. June is a great month for roses and this beautiful rose is called The Pilgrim, a rose bread created by David Austin. It is a beautiful joyful colour with an abundance of petals. I enjoyed starting to apply thin layers of oil paint and map out the shape of things from my own reference photo.

The painting's I have finished are needing to be framed and I have a lot of work that I have created to make avaliable to list as for sale as soon as they are framed and ready.

I am still creating art and have new idea's on progressing in my career as an artist. I was greatly inspired when I went to watch landscape artist of the year when the Sky Arts show visited Dover recently. I did not try to be a wild card and just enjoyed watching the artists while I did a quick watercolour sketch which I gave to the artist who I painted whilst they where painting their beautiful piece for the show.