How to take risks; I'm mixing it up.

Every single business book I have read has talked about risk-taking. Encouraging future entrepreneurs to take the leap and to  commit yourself to the glory that lies ahead!
And every art book kind of does the same thing…

As an artist we carefully learn about colour and composition, we study the masters, we perfect our craft then you read a book and it says chuck all that knowledge out the window and take risk. It’s mind boggling.

Anthony Robbins suggests “If you want to take the island; you’ve got to burn the boats”

The thing is, contrary to popular belief about artists, I’m square. I’m really square.
I pay my taxes on time, I’ve never been able to cope with a red bill or a sizeable overdraft!
I don’t take risks, I’m completely risk averse, always have been.
Even as a child I never managed to climb to the tallest part of the tree – too much of a risk!
I would not burn the boats, I would carefully moor up the boats and maintain them just in case the island thing didn’t work out.

This is not considered an entrepreneurial spirit at all!
It’s not really an artistic one either.
Because most artistic books along with business books also encourage risk-taking. I think I’m a little bit better as an artistic risk taker. I paint on linen with my own secret recipe of clear  gesso,  I use colour in surprising ways, painting beautiful magentas and blues where only browns and greys exist. But this week I’ve had an opportunity to risk it even more.

I have written many times before and in plenty of social media posts that my sketchbooks are my not-so-secret weapon. I take risks in them all the time.
That’s what they’re for right?
I think I’ve had a stumbling block on taking risks on my large scale work because my linen canvas are now very expensive (they’re handmade by Bird and Davies) a joy to use, they are beautiful and will last a lifetime but they don’t encourage risk taking. I have to know where I’m going when I paint no them. I love to leave the linen exposed as my background, which means the process is unforgiving too, there isn’t room for mistakes.

So I’ve been trying something a little different. I’ve been painting watercolour on canvas. The canvas is a linen poly mix and is a little cheaper than my linen counterpart, and with it being watercolour, if it all goes wrong I can gesso over it and  do an oil painting on top.

Watercolour on canvas isn’t for purists, and in fact it’s much more of a mixed media piece as I include some gouche and ink too. You need to prime the canvas with  specialist watercolour primer ( I use Daniel Smith).
Then off you go.

inspired by this sketch in my sketchbook carried out while on safari on the Masai Mara..”

I created this much larger work, in watercolour and ink on canvas.

It was a risk, but I’ve kind of enjoyed the immediacy of it rather than the weeks and weeks my oils take. And I think it captures something different from the oils, though I’m not sure what.

Will I do it again? Of course, because I’m learning all the time and this work, much like my sketchbooks will contribute to bigger and better pieces along the way.

If you’d like to learn more about watercolour on canvas I can heartily recommend Liz Chaderton’s book Painting watercolour on Canvas (full disclosure I know Liz from exhibiting at art fairs, she’s lovely lady and a splendid artist and teacher)

And if you want to see more of my African adventure come and see my solo show at Fisherton Mill Gallery Salisbury, from 22nd April -21 May 2023