When I started painting, I painted everything and anything. City scenes, still lives of fruit, flowers, cutlery and crockery. I painted landscapes, woodlands, interiors and chairs. I painted cats and dogs… you get the picture.
After some hundreds of these little paintings, I was approached by a gallery. They liked the still lives. We had a show and they all sold. That was amazing... Gob smacking even.
So then, I painted more still lives. And then some more... After a short while I found that all I was painting were still life paintings. And I was bored.
I realised that just because you can, doesn't mean you should. When you find yourself chasing a previous success, step in and remind yourself that the first success did not come by chasing it. It just arrived. Try to make way for the next one to arrive.
My early success came from working the process. So I started painting more of the things I liked painting and concentrating on the process. And before long, my galleries started asking for other work and to my surprise, they sold too.
So my pennies worth of advice for today? Stop chasing previous success! Trust the process. Paint, then paint some more. Follow your curiosity. And… paint some more
Go get your studio dirty!
Advice from iBAM! Visual Artist Awardee Róisín O'Farrell
