Nellie Windmill

I’ve been thinking about my blog content these last few days. Feeling torn between all the different topics I blog about. Knowing that some of them need a bit of love while others are kinda needy and should back the hell off. I’ve been participating in a couple of online groups that have really sucked up all my blog real estate – In December it was Gwen Bells’ “Best of 2009″ and now it’s Andrea’s “Creating Dreams Come True”. All good stuff but I’ve been neglecting the art and travel posts. My partner, Mike and I have started travelling again after our 2 month hiatus in Hammamet, Tunisia, which got me thinking about how on earth I’m going to keep up with the blogging. Then, just yesterday I met two artists, gave them the URL for my blog and later realised that I don’t in fact have any of the art work I’ve created in the past 2 months on my blog! It really is a shocking state of affairs. One solution would be to simply blog more often but I actually want to live my life rather than just write about it. So, I’ve committed to keeping some sort of balance. I’m going to back off on the Creating Dreams posts and re-direct my blogging efforts to my art and travels more.

To kick this new direction off, I’ve posted THE painting that made me go oh, THIS is the stuff I want to paint. I’m a newbie in the art world and I’ve been dabbling in various styles. This piece was very much inspired by the work of groovy Italian artist Nicoletta Ceccoli. I love how outrageous she gets with her paintings and I’m aspiring to such levels of outrageousness. I wanna come up with some really weird shit. There are quite a few new paintings that I want to share with you guys but I’m going to post one at a time and comment on each.

My next post will be about our travels. I still haven’t finished posting about our time in Sicily and will have had three weeks of traveling in Tunisia under our belts by then so there’s going to be a lot of material to work with.

Overall, I think having too many interesting things happening in my life to blog about is a very good problem to have. However, with my new found direction and discipline I hope it becomes a bit clearer to everyone what this blog is actually about.

Recently, I attempted to create a series of very girly pretty paintings for my new born niece’s nursery. A couple of them turned out great but one was just kinda dark and creepy and definitely not appropriate for a child’s bedroom. The above painting isn’t that one, but it’s definitely in the same vein. Although the painting didn’t quite go to plan, it took me somewhere much more interesting. I had an epiphany upon it’s completion. I’ve found my style. I didn’t produce the pink and cheerful painting I had in mind because that wasn’t what was wanting to come out and it’s not what inspires me. Interestingly, one of the paintings for my niece that did come out very girly and pretty will never adorn her nursery wall because I don’t feel comfortable putting it out in the world. I’m so aware of how much it isn’t my style that I feel uncomfortable with it, even though I’m happy with how it turned out aesthetically.

I’m really excited to create more paintings with whimsical, yet dark and creepy subjects. Think enchanted furry animals, porcelain doll ladies, hoop skirts, and little girls, all Mirror Mask-esque. I’ve got a whole bunch of these portrait style mini oval canvases that are perfect for introducing my new creations, one by one. I’d love to give them names and personalities and stories. I hope you all become good friends.