This past week I have been exploring watercolour techniques and I found the whole process rather more educational than I first expected on numerous levels. I entered myself into the self proclaimed challenge with little thought or skill other than what I had picked up myself as opposed to being taught. I have been taught Photography and Graphic Design but not so much the other side of the spectrum.

I learnt the fundamentals of Graphic Design when everything was crisp and very linear. Within Graphic Design every element of a final piece has a meaning, a reason for it being there from the main focal point across to the most minute of details. To some extent this is the same with Photography; when you look through the viewfinder you are already anticipating on some level the end result. With watercolour art... and I say Art because this piece of work served no rhyme or reason other than to bring myself joy in its finished state, it was not going on sale and it was not a commission piece... the whole process seems more organic.

I have become so used to perfect shapes, I would wager 99% of my Photographic Fine Art holds some linear,crisp element to it. I am comforted with repetition, with knowing within [artistically speaking] a close proximity what the final outcome will look like. I thrive on routine both within my work as well as my everyday life, every hour has its designation with very little free time accommodated and until recently that worked hunky dory.

Recently I have wanted to blur the straight lines, go beyond the standard canvas and in all honesty it has been hard... HARD... work. I started my recent piece by sketching out the basic elements and found this relatively easy because this is my standard practice before I normally ink in over and add detail etc. However this time my lines were finer, less defined, a mere ghost on an A2 canvas. The canvas size alone was daunting enough, personally I have never worked on a tactile piece of this size in my life. I then started adding in watercolour, defining my subject and the piece in general and then something happened... in short terms I went wrong but this time there was no undo, no CTRL Z... before my eyes it had failed.

To begin with I was angry at myself and it took me a while to remember I haven't worked in watercolour on this scale, to this expected accuracy and to the dimensions of this canvas. I also had to remember that if I deemed the piece already ruined then working on it further, gaining experience, trying new techniques... I couldn't make it worse.

I ended up completing a mixed media piece of both watercolour and colouring pencil and although I know the piece is not the best ever work created I found myself looking at a step up, a rise in my work. I learnt to not be afraid of colour, nothing everything has to be wishy washy, to stand true to my convictions. Perseverance was another major skill learnt, thinking it was all over and carrying on anyway proved [in this instance] a good thing.

I have also spent time reading extensively into the art of watercolour as well as researching into artists which have appealed to me or who I feel I could learn from. I feel my eyes have opened somewhat and that there is much to learn from this art and I wish to undertake this challenge wholeheartedly.

My goal now is to do a 'major' piece a week... in the sense of major to my skill and expertise, each piece designed to go beyond its predecessor. I also plan on doing this for a year... 52 pieces of work which will [hopefully] show my improvement in tactile art predominately within the collaboration of illustration and watercolour. I feel, no matter how bizarre this sounds, this is an evolution within my work; rising from a plateau and moving upwards a notch.

Fingers crossed it all goes well, no doubt something will be learnt in the whole process and when I have built up a small collective I shall launch them online. Now to just flick through my extensive photographic stockpile and let inspiration do the rest. :

You only live once...

So recently various factors in my life have led me to believe very strongly in 'you only live once so make it worth while.'

I am a dreamer by nature, I have massive dreams and I try and make the majority of them a reality. I love art so much, it is such an expressive environment with so many mediums and disciplines that you could never get bored in the Art world. I also think in the contemporary world we live in you can't even read to the bottom of the first page of the paper without feeling despondent and depressed. There is so much violence and hatred in the world it is hard to not get sucked in to being a cynic and a pessimist.

I think my ideology is naive but I really couldn't care less, I want to spend my life living my dreams and being the best me that I can be. I want to be an Artist of some nature because in my heart I know that's what makes me happy, what makes my soul sing and so far I feel that idea is going really well. However sometimes it is easy to get trapped in a rut and feel like nothing is moving forward but that is the very moment I look back at the path I have traveled.

Personally I have invested not only a lot of money [inconsequential reality] but also quite a bit of time pursuing my dream. People who read my blog might have read a previous entry where I have explained my journey but in brief I looked into Art as a form of escape when I was 16 and next year marks 10 years of perseverance and I only really realised that last Monday on my 25th birthday. My style has majorly changed since when I first began and my confidence within my work has grown but both of those are naturally consequences to any form of work. I would say out of those near 10 years the last couple have held the steepest learning curve and I can safely say I can add that I do not suffer fools gladly to my ever growing list of qualifications attained from the University of Life. I believe that if you want to do something then you do it, life is too short and excuses are way to easy to come by and regretfully only old age holds a steadfast guarantee of forgetting and forgiving. Actions [big, small or non-existent] do hold consequences and consequences by nature are constant and resolute; non moving in their rooted position in the history of life and the world and that is a stark reality in any existence.

So my point? Don't make excuses for not doing what you want to do no matter if your dreams are big or small. The moment where you form a seed of a dream and the making of that dream a reality is very fleeting indeed and before you know it the chances of the dream being reality have gone... and then the dream becomes a distant memory of a possibility that will never be. Excuses build monuments to nothing but a big sign of your own idiocy. Some people are happy doing nothing and that is amazing in its own right and some people want to travel the world and they should keep dreaming that dream.

Life is a fragile beauty, a fleeting spark in an old fire and so to waste that time is futile. We should all be striving to be better people physically, mentally, spiritually [whatever beliefs you might hold] both within our personal lives as well within our work.

Right now, this very moment, I want to go and sit in the sun and just watch the world go about its own merry tune, sometimes beauty is in the simplest of wishes... so sitting in the sun is exactly where I am about to go.. :D

To end I wish to share an important piece of work from my 'Macrocosm' project which I have dedicated to my lovely Nan who is awesome.

[Laura Ashford, 'Macrocosm']