This morning, I started in a very strange mood. Having watched the news unfold over the last few weeks, with all the talks of cuts and billions in debt, it seems impossible to see how I am going to be able to survive as an Artist.

It’s difficult. If I don’t paint, I get so annoyed, but I also feel frustrated when I paint, because I can’t see how it’s going to pay the bills. So many of my galleries have shut up shop. Really good hardworking galleries, which have given me so many opportunities to show. Small independent galleries that represent emerging artists like myself, seem to be more than struggling, as people tighten their belts. It appears to me that Art is what people are willing to sacrifice. Which is so depressing.

I always work better in my own space, when I have a deadline. Something positive to work towards. It’s difficult making work, if I am going to be the only one who sees it. I spent a good hour researching Scandinavian galleries. I’ve never been, but the photographs I see of the landscape and the light there seems so seductive and uplifting.

Saying this though, my work seems to have exploded today. For the first time in 10 years I’m using colour. Colour as in hot pinks and Vibrant Turquoise. I’m sure when I go back to my studio tomorrow I’ll probably shriek at the paintings, but today they feel like they are moving in the right direction.

By the time the girls got back from school, I had pulled myself out of the dark hole I was in, with the help of a brighter palette and feel a bit more positive about it all again. I have to paint and that’s that!