2023: Ever Onwards

Happy New Year!!

Thanks to everyone who waded into my 2022 year-end review blog last week. If you read it last Friday you really deserve a gold star as that was before I went back and edited. I went over it the next morning and made some major edits for ease of reading and clarity so feel free to go back and give it another try if you struggled the first time. As always the practice of writing about the year is helpful to me and allows me to see and experience it differently than just walking through it and not looking back. 

So here we are six days into 2023. How are you feeling about it? It seems too soon to judge - it takes some time to shake off the festive period and of course, we are still in the middle of winter. I feel like hibernating a bit longer. I have been for some short walks. I have done a bit of yoga. I have listened to a lot of music and I have thought about what comes next and how I want it to feel and look. It still feels vague and hazy. 

I feel like I need to do this art thing differently. Sometimes I think I need to just give up and do something entirely different but I am pretty sure that's not the way forward. I think a combination of things will need to take place. I also just think it is a matter of time. Clarity doesn't happen just because a month, day, or year rolled over. So, I will take a few steps forward, I will try a few things and I will wait and observe and try again. That's pretty much how I have done it all these years and with a lot of help. Ever onwards.

In other news, I created January's playlist for my Ko-fi Supporters. 

This month's mix casts a wider net, a worldly and electronic palette/palate cleanser - encouraging us to dream bigger in 2023. Just thinking of all the music we get to listen to is a reason to celebrate!

PS. Did you know that if you are a monthly supporter you get an automatic 10% off items in my shop? It's true! No coupon is needed - the discount is applied automatically. 

Support my work one time or monthly: https://ko-fi.com/meganchapman

Thanks to my December Wall of Famers! You make a difference!!

And that's all I have for you this week. Keep fighting, keep showing up and keep exploring this beautiful, confusing world. We need you here. 

Like my vibe? Support me! 

Studio life, routine, sales!

Stolen moments

40x50x4cm

Mixed media on canvas

© 2017 Megan Chapman

£585

Available through The Velvet Easel Gallery

This week was fabulous. I worked in the studio from Monday through Friday. I also returned to my yoga and meditation routine. In short, I returned to my natural way of being.

I deep cleaned my studio, gave all my brushes a good wash and organized my storage and just reconnected with the space. It was so good to be there, to drink my tea there, to see the familiar faces and walk the streets of my old neighbourhood.

Time spent as someone else

40x50x4cm

Mixed media on canvas

© 2017 Megan Chapman

£585

Available through The Velvet Easel Gallery

After my deep clean, I decided to have an impromptu studio sale over on my Facebook Art Page. I am grateful to say that eighteen pieces have since sold from the sale. This will enable me to pay my studio rent for a little over 3 months and provide some peace as our budgets have been severely stretched as both the studio and the flat rent went up considerably.

The sale continues with new works (mostly smaller, older, and some stranger) added and there are some ridiculous deals to be had. In the end, it comes down to space and money and I need both. Thanks again for your support.

Precipice

50x40x4cm

Mixed media on canvas

© 2017 Megan Chapman 

£585

Available through The Velvet Easel Gallery

In other news, this past Saturday I delivered 4 pieces to be included in the "5 Years" exhibition at The Velvet Easel Gallery. These works are from a series painted in 2017 called "All the ways." You can see them here, peppered through this blog post. I have now been showing my work with The Velvet Easel for the past year and I am really delighted to participate in this show celebrating the gallery's success over the past 5 years of business. Join us on Nov. 3rd for the opening. It's an all-day drop-in affair so if you want to make sure to meet up with me there, send me a message or comment so that we can coordinate.

Far away

40x40x4cm

Mixed media on canvas

© 2017 Megan Chapman

£550

Available through The Velvet Easel

Don't miss it. 

There are a few other art related things happening on the backburner and I will tell you about those soon.

Keep fighting because just when you are ready to quit, it might just get good again, so hang on. With gratitude until next week.

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Do you enjoy my blog, my video visits, the paintings I share, or the other content that I provide for free across social media? Consider buying me a cup of coffee in support of my work. I am a member of Ko-fi.com, A friendly way for creators to get paid! Thank you!

Come to centre

I put my hands together at my heart centre. I breathe in and I breathe out. I put my hands together at my third eye and I breathe in and out. I put my hands together at my lips and breathe in and out and then back to my heart.

I bow to us all. 

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. 

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. 

May all beings rejoice in the well being of others.

May all beings live in peace free from greed and hatred. 

I do this every morning after I meditate and practice yoga. This has become non-negotiable, an anchor to begin my day and to connect with myself and the world. 

I am grateful for this peaceful and kind practice. I am not trying to get anything or earn anything or be anything that I am not. I am simply coming to my centre.

And then everything else comes from there. My art, my intentions, my speech, my love, my relationships. I am not superhuman, I fuck up plenty, but the goal is to come from the centre. To live and work from this congruent place.

Yesterday, I was fortunate to ramble through the centre of the Pentland Hills to walk in the valley and see and feel the vastness of the landscape and just how small I am. I had the space to notice how small my worries, fears, and perceived problems are too. The day before I had been stressed, running from bus to bus from appointment to appointment with a mind filled with expectations and hopes. The next day I was free. I was sitting on an old low child's swing under a tree canopy in the Pentland Hills, surrounded by nature and sheep. Returned to centre. 

When I got home I wanted to dream of the place when I slept. I didn't, but I don't need to. The place is within.

I approach my best art from this place. Expansiveness. Creating something from nothing, art is a divine expression personal to me but able to reach and connect with many. This is not something to expect things from, this is a gift to be nurtured. What if I approached art from the same place as my morning meditation and yoga practice? 

"I am not trying to get anything or earn anything or be anything that I am not. I am simply coming to my centre."

Let's see...

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Do you enjoy my blog, my video visits, the paintings I share, or the other content that I provide for free across social media? Consider buying me a cup of coffee in support of my work. I am a member of Ko-fi.com, A friendly way for creators to get paid! Thank you!

Reminder. Next Friday, Sept 21st. 7-9pm.

Between Memory and Story: Selected Works of Megan Chapman a week from today at the The Out of the Blue Drill Hall September 21st  from 7-9pm. as part of Maggie's Centres Culture Crawl in Edinburgh.

Between memory and story

Let's see, I don't feel like I have much to say or maybe I have a lot to say but I don't know how to say it. Or I have a lot to say but this isn't the forum. Who knows. All I know is that it is Friday and I am here writing because it's what I do.

Let's start with the basics. I worked in the studio some this week but not quite as much as I would have liked. I might make up for this over the weekend.

You can see what I have been up to on the Tuesday Studio Video Visit recap.



I started fine tuning the canvases that I had been working on as an experiment for a potential commission that I shared in progress last week.

Here are two that are heading into a more finished phase but are not quite done. The other two have a ways to go yet. The colours feel fresh and bright with the pure yellow and dash of coral. We will see what happens next.

In other news, we are still stressed while looking for a new flat to rent (we have about 6 weeks before we have to be out of this one). My studio rent went up £20 a month and another gallery in Edinburgh contacted me to pick up all my work.

However, I know we will find a place to live because we just have to. My studio rent went up but I believe it now includes high-speed internet in my studio (just what I need, right?) and the gallery gave me back all my work but now I am able to present even more of my latest body of work at my solo pop-up exhibition, Between Memory and Story on September 21st from 7-9pm for the Maggie's Culture Crawl at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall.

I am incredibly honoured and excited to be taking part in this special event happening across twelve cities in the UK that aim to provide a year's worth of culture in one night all while raising funds and supporting people with cancer.

I have nothing to complain or worry about. I have had better weeks or months but I have also had worse. You bet I hit the yoga mat this week and the meditation cushion too. I reached out to friends and I felt my feelings. Every day I do that is a victory. I hope you were victorious too.

Until next week, let's keep fighting.

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Do you enjoy my blog, my video visits, the paintings I share, or the other content that I provide for free across social media? Consider buying me a cup of coffee in support of my work. I am a member of Ko-fi.com, A friendly way for creators to get paid! Thank you!