Author: Lynsey Ewan

Any artist, or maker of anything, will likely tell you how difficult it is to stay motivated in their practice. Working predominantly on my own, as many artists do, means self motivation is key to my success, or achieving my goals. 

Knowing my weaknesses, excuses, distractions etc is the first step to finding strategies to work around them. For instance, having my studio at home means the housework is within sight. Now, I’m not so interested in housework, it’s not exactly my favourite pastime, but when I have work to be getting on with in the studio, suddenly that housework is  the most important thing in the world, and requires to be attended to right away. Over many years, I’ve developed various strategies to bring my focus back to my work though, such as using music to help relax my mind, having some inner chat (yes, I talk to myself!), or compromising with my inner domestic goddess, and allowing her to put on one load of washing while I get back to the studio. It might sound like madness, but it works for me! Most of the time anyway.

Now, for those of you who don’t understand what I’m on about, and perhaps are wondering why I persevere with being an artist at all, I do reap the benefits of making art when I get to the point of making it. Stood at the easel with brush in hand, and totally immersed in what I love, it really is the best feeling. I can liken it to meditation, the state of serenity or bliss when the mind slows down and you can let go of your thoughts just a little bit more than normal. Again though, getting to that meditative state takes a lot of energy, commitment and it’s quite hard work actually.

Yes, making artwork takes a lot of hard work, patience, perseverance and frankly it can be a really painful process. It takes a lot of time, and can be a daily struggle! Knowing how it makes me feel though; the releasing of tension, sense of completeness (however fleeting), happiness and the sort of expression that is beyond what I could convey in words – it makes it all so worthwhile. In any case, it’s not as if I decided this as a career path, it is simply what I am compelled to do. 

So, if I could give the world any small piece of advice, it would be to find some practice or activity where you can express yourself more fully. That could mean anything, from painting to skydiving, but to find that one thing that makes your heart sing will bring harmony into your very core. It will help you to feel more alive, as my practice does for me. But do be prepared to work to achieve this bliss.

I’ve added a new page to the website, to highlight a topic that I feel very strongly about, and take seriously when making choices in my life in general – Being Eco-friendly.

Visit the new page here – lynseyewan.co.uk/eco-friendly

It has been a very busy Summer here, with preparations for Perthshire Open Studios and Bristol Affordable Art Fair. We had a great turnout at Stanley Village Hall for POS, surpassing our figures last year to 401 visitors! Being a part of Stanley Artists is proving to be a great move, our group is very supportive and community-spirited, which is most welcome when you predominantly work in isolation.

Now I get a bit of a breather, allowing for the studio to have a long-awaited redecoration. Photos to follow 🙂

I’ve just submitted work to two open submission exhibitions, something that I haven’t done for a while, so fingers crossed for a favourable outcome there. As any other artist will know (who submits work to these types of exhibitions), you have to become pretty thick-skinned when it comes to your artwork being rejected. Dealing with rejection is just about an everyday occurrence to a professional artist, in some form, whether a passing comment, an exhibition committee saying ‘no thanks’ or a gallery not getting back to you at all.

And some people wonder what all my spiritual/self-development stuff is all about… Dealing with the challenges of life, better than I could have otherwise, of course! Being a self-employed artist can be isolating and somewhat depressing, at worst, but very rewarding when the successes do come, and that is a matter of mindset, how you respond to events that happen. I’m still learning, but have a great teacher – see www.derekoneill.com, if you’re interested.

So, getting back to my update… Once the studio is all shiny and white, with better lighting, I will be preparing for a couple of exhibitions next year, including a solo show at the Scottish Natural Heritage‘s Battleby Conference Centre in Perthshire. This is a fantastic, large and open space, which will take some very large paintings, so I’m taking the opportunity to produce a scale of work that I haven’t been able to for many years. I’ll be focussing on native plant species, to keep with the ethos of the organisation. I’m excited about it all!

Our Stanley Artists group will be exhibiting together at Birnam Arts Institute in the Summer next year too, and a few of us are submitting work to their Christmas show, which opens on 2nd December this year. We hope that you can make it along to both exhibitions, to see the great work that we all produce.

Until the next post.

Best wishes,
Lynsey