Hello and welcome to my newsletter, ‘The Art Date’ It’s taken me a good year and a half, a few good books, a course, and a few extra months for me to finally face my fear, of writing and sending a newsletter. What do I have to lose? The weirdest thing is, I don’t even know, it’s just the thought of it, the idea and fear makes me queasy inside, so it becomes so easy to avoid.

Why ‘The Art Date’?

My newsletter was always going to be The Art Seeker Letter, but today as I make my first draft, I find myself writing ‘The Art Date’ I’ve just re – read Julia Cameron’s fantastic book, ‘The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity’, and re-visited the idea of keeping an Artist date to refill our creativity well.

Julia says,

“ As artists, we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources we draw on them - to restock the trout pond-so to speak. I call this process, filling the well.”

I believe this is essential for artists, creatives and all of us from all walks life, so I thought I’d have a bit of fun seeking ‘creative resources’ for my own well, and well, thought I’d share it with you.

What to expect on our Art Date, a delightful mix of:

Art Life: Studio Stories, Updates on my artwork
5 Art Seeking Stories that have caught my eye.
My reading and a recommended book from my bookshelf – you can guess which will be first, in addition there’ll be books recommended from my artist podcast chats.
Current and the next Art Seeker Stories Podcast episodes, with Art 2 Heart artist interviews and the occasional blogpost.
A quote or affirmation, to spark your day.

My Art Life.

Of course, I’ll also take you on my own artist journey where I’ll be showing you behind the scenes, the process and progress (or not) of my own artwork, the good bad and ugly. You, wonderful people will get first dibs on my art works and early bird discounts.

Well….. there is my 100 day project, I’ve done 75. So OK - I’m still on it, despite the official date ending, but that’s all good, I’ve got this in my own time. This week I’ve picked up the paintbrush after not painting for a couple of weeks due to other commitments and it felt great. However, whereby in the past it has always felt natural going large I’ve put myself in the comfort zone of A3 for my 100 days, as I approach my last quarter, I know that what I need is to go large and for the first time ever it feels daunting and awkward. Gosh, I’m finding my new direction playing small there is only one way – TO GO BIG!! Yikes I’m excited!!

Another Fear – Yep – IGTV Lives

Love them or hate them I’ve coming around to the idea to do them, so while I do, I’d like to introduce you to my artist friend Heidi Shedlock from South Africa, On Friday I had a blast with Heidi on her Out to Lunch IGTV Series @heidishedlock - Her Art Seeker Stories podcast episode 33, comes out Wednesday 2nd June.

Inspiration

Meanwhile I’m inspired by Faye Bridgewater and Celine Gabrielle and their approach to carving themselves into their own art market, selling their paintings. So yes please, I’ll eat a bit of that. I think the key here, is their strong sense of self, vision and clarity in what they do. They also are very generous in useful tips on experiences anfd processes and are both keen for others to succeed and thrive, and share exactly how they are nailing it!

Faye recently hired herself a gallery for The Brighton Open Studio’s Week, and Celine is on a mission with her Million Dollar Art Project and is currently opening her Artist Pep Rally Meets which sound fab and has a podcast, OK Art Cool.

Art Seeking Stories:

1- Rachel Jones : Say Cheeeeese

I love Rachel’s artwork and had the pleasure of seeing her exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery which is on view until 12th June. Her paintings are raw and emotional created by oil sticks and pastel, there is something immediate about her process which uses her hands without the barrier of a brush. Her landscapes are vast and enticing, bright and shocking and yet they are also a muddy and down to earth. Her landscapes echo the body, and here predominantly teeth. She questions our visual cultural landscape in stereotypical notions of being a black woman, seeking her truth.

2- Epilogue by Cj Hendry

A church with 10 tonnes of recyclable confetti made up of millions of paper flower cutouts falling from the ceiling of a cavernous hall over the show's 10 days. The installation questions the ephemeral nature of beauty, time, and mortality. Petals float about inside a the church, as days go by, more settle like snow. I didn’t get to see it but it certainly looked magical. To see and read more: ‘ Cj Hendry transforms a defunct East London church into a giant ‘snow globe’ ,’ in THE SPACES.

3- The History of Art Patronage

I listened to Jo’s Art History podcast and enjoyed a double episode of The History of Art Patronage with Jo McLaughlin and Will Jarvis who take you on a whistle-stop tour of art creation and support from cave paintings to the cutting edge contemporary market of today. Will also discusses Gertrude, his art subscription service and how that is changing the way people engage with the art market. I have also signed up for a free Artist Mentor Subscriber Event: In Conversation with Will Jarvis (Artist Mentor), 31st June, 1-2pm - Well worth a signup I should think, I’m a great fan of Ceri Hand’s, monthly live Q&As.

4- An exhibition pairing of Walt Disney’s animations with rococo works from the Wallace Collection

Something a little bit random, I just love the familiarity, recognition and the idea of Disney being inspired by the great classics in art.

INSPIRING WALT DISNEY: THE ANIMATION OF FRENCH DECORATIVE ARTS 6 April 2022 – 16 October 2022 The Wallace Collection
Hertford House,
Manchester Square,
London W1U 3BNW

A couple of articles you might like exploring this theme. Beautiful art references in Disney movies and Inspiring Walt Disney: a ‘scholarly’ show that raises the stakes for curators everywhere

5- Frieze Week New York Highlight:

The weird wild and whacky, Wow! The American Hush. Marjan Moghaddam takes the world of virtual reality to the next level in her art. Her work redefines the form of digital painting as still, animated, interactive, avateered and virtual reality compositions. Her cyborg huge bodies held their space strutting alongside the gallery booths. These bodies are grandiose, machined, organic, hybrid, and energy-based, as disrupted and discontinuous figures representing our hybrid virtual and physical lives, very weird and yet wonderful.

The Art Seeker Book Club

I’m a book lover and have collected books worldwide since my days as cabin crew. Recently I’ve come to believe that I have all I need to know is inside of me, however should there be any doubt or desire for clarification – the answer is definitely in my bookshelf. It’s just a little trickier to know which book, page or quote has the answer.

The Book I’m reading now: Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

I’m a sucker for mindset, spiritual awakening, universal energy, law of attraction, abundance, I love it all, in another life, I’d definitely be a life coach. So after catching a 5 day Abundance workshop with the teachings of Bob Proctor, this was an essential read.

I’m just over half way through. Maxwell Maltz is a plastic surgeon who explored the power and the idea of our self image, of how an individual can have complete control over their ability to achieve or fail to achieve, recognising we have a built in guidance system which operates like a machine. Our thoughts control our outcome and it’s all dependant on the stories we tell ourselves, that are deeply ingrained within our subconscious mind. Our cybernetic guidance system steers us on course with the thoughts we tell ourself - right or wrong, positive or negative, it doesn’t care, continually auto-correcting us on our path. The good news is we do have the power to change our ways, with the power of our mind, its all based on our thoughts and the stories we tell ourselves. So far a groundbreaking read and I highly recommend it.stories we tell ourselves. So far a groundbreaking read and I highly recommend it.

Book from My book Shelf : The Artist Way by Julia Cameron.

What I find incredible is that I read this book over 20 years ago, during my life as cabin crew, desperately seeking art, stuck and blocked, unable to create. I had three people in the space of a week recommend me this book. I gathered I was due a re-read, and wow, I’m so glad I did. Julia is an advocate for morning pages, what can I say, I love them. I’d forgotten the Artist date, I guess I had so many flying around the world, I do love the idea, taking time to explore and take yourself out. This newsletter then, hopefully may give you some ideas. To fill your creativity well, so that your soul sings and continues to flow.

Newsletter Side note:

If like me you are having trouble facing the whole newsletter idea check out Helen Perry, List Club – it’s brilliant, she also runs a fab podcast – ‘Just Bloody Post It’

Currently she is launching Newsletter launchpad well worth a look.

And my favourite book about newsletters is:

Do Open: How a Simple Email Newsletter Can Transform Your Business (and it can) from the Do Series. By David Hieatt,

Great episode with David on the ‘Just Bloody Post it’ listen here.

Quote : Art does not reproduce what we see, It makes us see. Paul Klee.

On the POD

Yay, this week we are celebrating 1 year of ART SEEKER STORIES !

LAST WEEK: EP 32: Art 2 HeArt : Lisa-Marie Price,

Abstract Paintings Created With Sustainably Sourced Natural Watercolours Made By Hand From Foraged Earth Pigment.

Lisa – Marie Price’ Recommended book: ‘Big Magic’ by Elizabeth Gilbert and ‘Hope in the Dark’ by Rebecca Solnit

THIS WEEK EP 32: Art 2 HeArt: Becky Sheraidah

Founder & CEO of ARTHOUSE Unlimited, Celebrating The Artistic Talents of Adults Living With Complex Neuro-Diverse & Physical Support Needs

Today, I have an Art 2 HeArt with BeckySheraidah, Founder and CEO of ARTHOUSE Unlimited, a charity that represents a collective of artists living with complex neuro-diverse and physical support needs, including complex epilepsy.

Newsletters are archived over here on the blog, two weeks after issue.

Issue 1: Welcome To The Art Date, A Newsletter From Emma Hill.