Abstractionistas Exhibition at Detour Espresso!

The Abstractionistas present, ‘Awakenings’ to be held at Detour Espresso at their Marchmont location during the months of February and March at 39 Argyle Place, EH9 1JT, Edinburgh. 

Enjoy your coffee alongside some fresh, hot, abstract art by artists Megan Chapman, Judith Shaylor and Susan Elizabeth Wilson. All our work will be available to purchase and collect by contacting us directly throughout the 2-month exhibition. 

We are looking forward to having our paintings out in the world again and in such a beautiful and relaxed setting as Detour Espresso. 

It will be great to be showing alongside my peers again! We hope you can pop by and enjoy our work while you are out and about in Edinburgh over the next two months. 

I plan to show the following pieces depending on space. Message me with any inquiries and as always, I am open to instalment plans. 

Hiding in plain sight
Mixed Media on Canvas
41x51x4 cm (16x20x1.5")
£325.00
To purchase email: megancha@gmail.com

Out of my mouth come flowers, come barbs
Mixed Media on Canvas
41x51x4 cm (16x20x1.5")
£325.00
To purchase email: megancha@gmail.com

Time spent as someone else
Mixed Media on Canvas
41x51x4cm (16x20x1.5")
£325.00
To purchase email: megancha@gmail.com

Stolen moments
Mixed Media on Canvas
41x51x4cm (16x20x1.5")
£325.00
To purchase email: megancha@gmail.com

To hide the best parts
Mixed Media on Canvas
40x40x4cm (15.5x15.5x1.5")
 £275.00
To purchase email: megancha@gmail.com

I hope everyone is as well as can be and starting to dream and think about the spring. I saw some snowdrops today on my walk and have enjoyed a few sunny days with the birds as they sing their spring songs. I am looking forward to everything bursting open again soon. I must be patient. 

Oh, and if you missed this week's Tuesday Studio Video Visit you can see it here. It's a quick musical exploration of ten small works. Enjoy. 

Thank you for joining me this week and for your continued support.

Until next week, keep fighting!

All in good time

Hello Lovely Blog Readers, 

Thanks to everyone who stopped by last week to read my last post regarding calling up the warriors. It was a very popular post according to the numbers and some folks let me know that it really resonated. Thank you very much. It is always interesting to see how a certain post lands with my readers, especially after all these years. Can you believe that my blog will turn 15 this coming April? We will have to celebrate!

In other news, I did something a bit different with my Tuesday Studio Video Visit this week as well. This week, I shared a meditative and simple process to get our hands moving again if we are stuck in a rut simply by returning to mark making and tuning into the process as we listen to and evaluate our feelings, thoughts, and experiences. This video also seemed to resonate well with people and some have suggested that I create a separate mark making series of videos. We will see. If you have any opinions about it please leave a comment either here or on youtube (or message me on social media somewhere). It was fun to do something different and talk through a process. Sometimes we all need a jumpstart or some hand holding to make a move or a mark! Here it is if you missed it. Please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel if you haven't already. Thank you. 

In other news, later today I will be joining the Abstractionistas in our first collective meeting of the new year. We will be discussing future plans and exhibitions. I will have more to tell you about that next week. 

I have been hearing from several artists that this year is off to a slow start for them and I think maybe that is for the best. We are still in the heart of winter, we are animals and we are rebuilding our energies so that perhaps we can burst out again to the surface in spring like all the flowers. So, if you are feeling stressed about not working yet or not working enough try not to worry. All in good time - be like the flowers and the animals, rest in nature and trust. 

Jean Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, c. 1767. Oil on canvas

31 7/8 inches × 25 ¼ inches. London, Wallace Collection

Thanks for dropping by and for enjoying the blog and the videos. Soon, there will be new works and exhibition news to share as we all burst back out onto the scene like a Rococo fantasy. 

Until next week, take care. 

Calling up the warriors...

The Man Who Fell to Earth. Starring David Bowie. 1976.
Meme from the internet. 

I woke up at 4 a.m. with ideas that needed writing down. I had big plans for this blog too, but then other things kept getting in the way. So here I am at the end of the day, finally sitting down to write and I know I won't share everything I am thinking. My thoughts are coming too fast and some of the things I think are no one's business but my own. 

Last week, I was calling forth creativity and the unborn art at our fingertips. Tonight, I am calling forth my warriors and you don't need to know exactly what that means. I alluded to the idea on last week's Tuesday Studio Video Visit. I am sitting in the middle of great change or desire to change as many of us are since the pandemic began - this requires new ways of thinking but more importantly doing. 

I want to do this differently. I want to think about this differently. This meaning, art, specifically my art. I know I have said this before in different guises but I mean it. Time is of the essence. I have to change my thinking about all of this. The way I think about it no longer serves me or anyone else. 

So, I will need to call forth my warriors and lists will be made, and I will remember opportunities that went before and connections forged over years and years, and the new ones here in Scotland as well. I will be vulnerable to some degree and I will be scared and I won't know what I am doing and it will be hard. I think that is how art and a life of growth might have to be. 

I have given myself so much grief over this calling. I have limited myself, my experience, and my art because I have been ashamed that this is my path. I am ashamed that this path leaves me vulnerable to living on a shaky foundation. I often feel like an alien in this world. A high functioning alien that needs a lot of time to just look out the window and notice all the beauty.

I don't want what you want. I don't want to live how you want to live. I don't need what you need. I don't value you what you value. I don't strive for what you strive for. I am not motivated by what you are motivated by. I am my own person and I have the right to live this way even when it is often misunderstood, judged, and questioned. 

you = societal values at large/the capitalist machine. 

I think you and I, dear reader, have a lot in common and share many values. The warriors (and thankfully there are many) who read my posts, follow me on social media, support me, and have collected my art over the decades can thankfully see, read, or hear something in the work that resonates. I am forever grateful. You will be hearing from me soon... 

Until next week, keep fighting. 

With love and gratitude, 

Megan

Detail of the first drawing of the year 2022

 

And if you missed the latest Tuesday Studio Video Visit, here it is. Notice the better lighting! That's thanks to you warriors. ❤

Let's call it forth!

Well hello, my beautiful readers, 

Thanks to everyone who read last week's year in review post. I really appreciate everyone who took the time to come over and have a look. I hope everyone's new year is off to a good or at least somewhat reasonable start. 

My studio (home or otherwise) is not up and running yet this year. I did record my Tuesday Studio Video Visit and talked a bit about this and my plans and desires for this new year. If you missed it, here it is again.

In other news, I have been looking at sublime details from various paintings, looking at vintage jewellery, taking walks, and spending a bit less time on social media. I turn 50 in early March and I would like to get clear about a few things, and this seems like the way forward.

I hope you will be part of the process. 

Here's to the future art just waiting to be born, all creative pursuits, intriguing conversations, wild collaborations, all hopefully interspersed with loads of magic and beauty. 

It's all just waiting at the ends of our fingers. Let's call it forth. 

Until next week, take care and thank you. 

Joos van Cleve, Le Christ en Salvator Mundi (Detail), c.1516-18, 54 x 40 cm, Louvre