New Inspiration

Over the past few weeks I've been decorating my bedroom, transforming it from the shabby purple teenage girl's room it's been for about the past ten years into a new (hopefully) sophisticated and less cluttered sanctuary for me to actually use - instead of just dumping things and going to sleep.

Before photo

As you can see it was just cluttered and felt cramped, I didn't want to spend time in there and yet I was desperate for some space of my own since moving back in with Mum & Dad.

Now the room's repainted black and white with one wall (almost) wallpapered and a chalkboard wall, a lot of my clutter has been binned, and new low shelves have helped me organise all the junk I can't bring myself to throw away. 

It's still not finished - in need of a rug, lampshades and a new chair, and I'm going to wallpaper the wall behind my new white shelves (just because I had to buy an entire new roll of wallpaper to finish the other wall off). 

Now Photo

Still a work in progress and the wardrobe feels akward in the middle of the room but now I have a nice spacious area to make my desk functional once again!

BUT LONG STORY SHORT

In amidst the several weeks of mess, decorating and organising I rediscovered all of my old high school and college art books, and all the large pieces and canvases. I was sat for a while flicking through the old sketchbooks thinking, 

"wow I actuall used to be pretty good at this, I can't believe I don't do it any more"

My largest canvas from my final A Level art exam had been hidden away behind my drawers since I'd brought it home, digging it out in the rearranging I dusted it off and put it against the wall to brighten up the black and white colour scheme.

Every day since it's been up on my wall (nearly a week) I've been looking at it and contemplating what extra work needs doing to it. Six years ago it had been completed in a 15 hour art exam and then never touched again, I'd regarded it as complete based on the exam time constraints. But looking at it now I could see patches of discolouration, rough edges and just bits and bobs that needed touching up a bit. 

I decided to undeclare the painting as "finished" and have now started to work on it again, beginning with repainting the white areas as they were the most noticably shabby.

The Painting - White Areas Repainted

I've started this blog with a view to helping myself get back into painting, and hopefully look at selling some prints. I thought writing about it and instagramming my work might help keep me going with it all but who knows... I'm hoping to keep it up now I have a nice environment and space to work in. I'll keep you posted!