Breathe through this

We walk
200gsm heavyweight acid-free A5 sized paper 5x7"
Mounted and ready to pop into an 8x10" frame.
Titled, signed, and dated on back of art and mount.
Sold

Today is the day after American Thanksgiving. Some of you know today as Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day. I simply enjoyed some leftovers and pumpkin pie and got back to work. 

I started spray fixing the pile of my mixed media pieces on paper that I have created here at the home studio since March. I also made a few updates to my ko-fi shop and will be adding more work there this weekend. Usually, I fix or varnish the pieces as they are sold but then they are in a precarious position while waiting for that moment due to the dry media (charcoal and pastel). I feel relieved they are fixed and on backing boards and under plastic now, well-protected. 

It felt good to varnish/spray fix nineteen pieces today. I made a varnishing station over the bathtub, so I could lay out 6 pieces at a time. I still have another stack of larger works on paper to varnish later this weekend. I have finished 61 new pieces since working from home, there are several others in various stages of progress.

I created some more affordable small works last week. Six new original mixed media paintings on 200gsm heavyweight acid-free A5 sized paper (5x7"). These are mounted and ready to pop into an 8x10" frame. They will be titled, signed, and dated on the back of the art and mount. £45 and free UK Shipping. £8 shipping anywhere else in the world. These are charity works with £3 from the sale of each piece will be used buy a nightlight for a refugee through freedomfromtorture.org.

You can purchase these through my shop.

https://ko-fi.com/meganchapman/shop

Minimal toys
200gsm heavyweight acid-free A5 sized paper 5x7"
Mounted and ready to pop into an 8x10" frame.
Titled, signed, and dated on back of art and mount.
Sold 

Everything good

200gsm heavyweight acid-free A5 sized paper 5x7"
Mounted and ready to pop into an 8x10" frame.
Titled, signed, and dated on back of art and mount.
https://ko-fi.com/s/8febf35798

Quiet place
200gsm heavyweight acid-free A5 sized paper 5x7"
Mounted and ready to pop into an 8x10" frame.
Titled, signed, and dated on back of art and mount.

https://ko-fi.com/s/6ac6e844b4

Marigold's castle

200gsm heavyweight acid-free A5 sized paper 5x7"
Mounted and ready to pop into an 8x10" frame.
Titled, signed, and dated on back of art and mount.
Sold

Breathe through this
200gsm heavyweight acid-free A5 sized paper 5x7"
Mounted and ready to pop into an 8x10" frame.
Titled, signed, and dated on back of art and mount.

https://ko-fi.com/s/528e4eb84d

I even managed to film a tiny Tuesday Studio Video Visit as I flicked through the above pieces (best listened to with no sound - as there was a plumber making a racket while I was filming). We like to keep it real around here.

And while I have you here, please consider signing up for my mailing list if you haven't already so we can stay in touch beyond the confines of social media. Your information is never shared and there shall be no spam! You can easily unsubscribe at any time. Click the link to subscribe: http://eepurl.com/hhjsEb Thank you.

Until next week, be well, stay safe.

Breadcrumb path to the soul

You wouldn't just let it burn

Mixed media on canvas, 71x87cm. 

Framed in white (with the painting continuing on to the frame)

2019 Megan Chapman

I sit here at my blog writing desk (this is a new thing - I now have a blog writing desk and swivel chair for my art business purposes). I have no idea what to write about but I am here on a Friday attempting to get back into this blog writing groove. Grey sky above, a cup of tea, and the cat next to me, as I look out the window. 

I am waiting for some art supplies to be delivered, nothing major just some paper and some spray fixative so I can tackle the mound of finished work that needs fixing due to my using Conte crayon pastels. The paper will hopefully be used for some new small works that I will mount - think Christmas presents. How can it already be the 20th of November!?! 

I have put on some concentration music on my headphones, I look to the sky and zone out thinking about a potential new accidental portrait I could paint. Remember those? Then my mind turns to wonder if we are all trapped 16-year-olds in ageing bodies or if that is just me. I am thinking about art related to that, but just for a split second - nothing serious. 

I have some small canvas-covered boards I could be working on - another Christmas sized item for your enjoyment and purchase. Fine art for Christmas. Thinking about all the marketing aspects -  fine artists and makers scrambling for sales, attention, new ways of being in this Instagram society. I don't think I imagined this when I graduated from art school over 21 years ago now. I was 4 years "behind" my peers after a stint of doing nothing much at all. I remember feeling so old and so young at 27 when I completed my BFA. And at 48 I still feel so old and so young, I imagine that is how it will always be. 

I take more photographs than paint these days (that's really been the case for a long time), for a split second I remember thinking about switching my major to photography from painting. That would not have made sense and I am glad I didn't and I think the two work well hand in hand. Photography helps me see, and you have to be able to see to paint. I am not talking about with functioning eyes but more with another sense. Photography allows me to see things I am too close to and feeds the information to me in another way that I can more easily digest. Listening to music, writing, and photography are my breadcrumb path to the paintings. I can't have one without the other.

Abstract paintings are the breadcrumb path to my soul and the unseen world outside and they connect me to you if they work right or if you are in the right place to see and receive them. I have cleaned my tiny workspace, I am almost ready to begin again. 

The sky is completely white and featureless, all the angles of the neighbouring houses punch into the air. The negative space loudly proclaims I am here. 

I love sitting in front of windows looking out.

One day I will dive deeper

It's Friday and here I am. I caught up the past two weeks here on my blog and updated some supporters only images and words over on my Ko-Fi page. I sold some art this week, packed, and happily posted it. I will be doing just a bit more of that tomorrow as one piece needs a special box. I am thankful for my patron's support now more than ever. 

Oh, but the big news from America is that Biden and Harris won the election!!! The results were finally called on Saturday with more votes being counted still to this day. I am relieved and exhausted. I think most of us needed that win more than we realised. 

I looked back on my work over the last several years and more of the work than you might imagine is about number 45 and living under his reign. Art always tells the truth, it's veiled and strange but often more honest and more immediate in exposing my feelings and the feelings of the world than I can comfortably be. One day on here I will dive deeper and we can discuss how his presidency filtered into the work I made. 

In other news, I continue my walking and watch the seasons change. There is a vegan pot pie in the oven for dinner and I am looking forward to catching up with a show I have been enjoying. Everything is slowing down a bit again with the darkness. It was just about to be spring and here we are again. Covid has changed a lot (understatement of the year). I feel I have lost some habits and anchors but I have gained some new ones along with some new dreams, hopefully to be realised soon. I am out of practice in writing and talking about my work just now. That is why this blog and my Tuesday Videos are so important and that is why if I lose step with the routine it is harder to get it back. The rules are different just now, our expectations for ourselves and each other need to be different too. It's still good to remember what is important and what I want to continue to do or return to doing.

I hope soon to be writing deeply about my work but right now I can just show up and say thank you. 

Until next week, take good care. 

Welcome the new

The maps have changed
mixed media on 200gsm acid-free paper
42x59.4cm/16.5x23.4"
©2020 Megan Chapman
£300

A couple of art things happened this week, I think (remember what I said about time in last week's post).

I was delighted that one of my latest paintings, 'The maps have changed' was used in the SCAN (Scottish Contemporary Art Network) member mailout. I am a proud member of SCAN. Find out more about the organisation and consider joining. We are stronger together! https://sca-net.org/about/. It is always rewarding to be able to have my work shared within a community of my peers across Scotland. 

In other news, I tried something a bit different and with some trepidation. I have been wanting to create some "Artist 101" style guides for artists just starting out for a long time now. Perhaps for the artists that may not have any other means of moral support or encouragement or those that won't have the opportunity to go to art school or are returning to art from a break. Sometimes we all need some friendly and helpful advice especially when it comes to calling ourselves, artists. So, I created a colourful and fun 8-page pdf to help us gather up the evidence, gently step into our truth, and believe in ourselves and our art! It's a short, sweet, and kind guide to thinking a little differently about putting ourselves out there. I am offering it in my ko-fi shop starting at £3. I hope to make other guides in the series soon. It's a bit of an experiment just now. Thanks to those that have purchased and those that previewed my wee guide so far. Suitable for most ages and experience levels. You can find it here, https://ko-fi.com/s/706ceb33e5.

Of course, this is election WEEK and I have been glued to CNN feeling cautiously optimistic... 

The world needs you and your art, your thoughts, your passion, your heart. 

Thank you.