On the Easel - May 2026

Being a self-confessed control freak, I can tie myself in knots when there’s a shift in my work – whether that shift is intentional or not, my instant reaction is to pick up the shift, drop everything else and GO GO GO! 

When what I should be doing is slowing down, gently encouraging these shifts, giving them time and space to breathe; to take their own shape.

I think flower growing has helped me discover this about myself – we were given seeds to grow our first month in Flower Club which terrified me – I felt sure that my seeds wouldn’t make it, how could they with me in charge of their basic needs! 

I can tell you now that I’ve never given any other plant-life so much care, attention and consideration – every time I walked by the little seed pot sitting on the window sill, I’d stop to say ‘hi’ and for the first week, there was nothing to signify any sign of life…the Flower Club whatsapp group was filled with success stories so I started googling and asking around among my gardening friends…the advice I got was to persevere in their care and be patient; not the best advice for a control freak!

But it worked and I now have 6 healthy seedlings waiting for their time to be planted out – milestone number 2 that I’m going to have to build myself up to…for such little seeds, the sense of responsibility has been huge; so much so that I’m not really sure I’m cut out for this growing scenario but lets see…

If I take the nuggets of wisdom from the above and apply it to my painting practice, I have been impatient to explore an idea that’s come about while working through the early stages of my David Mankin online course. 

The issue I’ve got with the idea is timing; I’ve got a busy 6 weeks ahead as we head into event season – why couldn’t it have come earlier in the year when I was scratching around feeling lost; how dare it make an appearance now of all times!  But remember the seeds Annmarie, give it time; give it space; keep the faith…easier said than done but I will try.

While we wait though, here’s a little peek of what’s been going on behind the scenes and following in from my previous blog where I should you this set of paintings destined to be torn up at some point...

Well here they are cropped down to parts that intrigued me...

But it's what I've been doing with the leftover scraps from these crops that's really got me intrigued -these are what I need to nurture when what I want to do is forget everything else and GO GO GO!

But instead, I MUST be patient...