Struggling to stay focused as an artist? This is how I’m changing my mindset for a better workflow and to get more paintings done. This essay isn’t just for artists though. It applies to everybody!   Setting the scene: It’s the first day of the year as I write this (without A.I.) and I’m feeling all the lethargy and depression of an overindulgent and undisciplined Festive Period. My wife’s elderly parents have been staying with us for the last two weeks. Her au...read more...

I haven’t written a reflective artist letter in a long time. So this morning I woke up naturally at 5:15, the day after Christmas, with the neighbourhood cockerels blaring their insane cacophony at the rising light, and decided to just do it and start. Also, I will not use A.I. to write this and influence the trajectory of my thinking. This is meant to be a bit like Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages from The Artist’s Way. This isn’t supposed to be an annoying ‘better-ge...read more...

Thinking through the Nigredo is a catalogue of my ruminations and inner processes while working on the painting, Nigredo. If you missed the first part of this series on Thinking Through the Nigredo, see The Union of Darkness and Light. The Nigredo refers to the first stage of the alchemist’s psychological or spiritual journey. This is the stage of initial darkness or breakdown before the hope of rebirth or illumination. Creativity is the preventative and antidote to neurosis. Connection ...read more...

I suppose things have changed forever. On a violet evening just before Christmas, I stood, studying the Western sky. A grey wall of the approaching cold front nearly hid the Great Saturn/Jupiter Conjunction; an amazing herald for a new Epoch. Whether through grace, luck or undiluted instinct, in the year 2020, I came to recognise the World-Wide Deception. Now I have come to accept, that the inner-narratives of many may never be dislodged. And there is no reason at all for me to believe that I ca...read more...