‘Starry Starry Life’ – Day 287/365 – Sold

‘Starry Starry Life’ – Day 287/365 – Sold

Private Commission, Sold

Custom Commissioned miniNatures will never be reprinted for sale. They remain unique One-Of-A-Kind Artworks.
Inspiration image: client’s photography


ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE

A commissioned birthday painting for a dear dear man, this – a capture of his trip to Antarctica during his years working as a surveyor.⁠
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I’m not sure about many things in this wild short life we get, but I do believe that no night, no adventure in the genuine company of stars will ever leave you feeling regretful. ⁠
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And while we truly celebrate our time on this planet only once a year I wish for this special human and for all of you a lifetime of starry nights and many happy earthdays.⁠

‘Luna Moth’ – Day 286/365

‘Luna Moth’ – Day 286/365

ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE

Drunk moth on moonshine⁠
Thinnest veils reveal some truth⁠
Follow your own light⁠
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Happy full moon lovely humans⁠

(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration image: artist’s own

‘Tiny Destiny’ – Day 284/365

‘Tiny Destiny’ – Day 284/365

Isn’t it interesting – even though you have everything in you to be just the version of you the universe or fate or chance imagined – you still have to decide to lean into it.⁠ Just because it’s your destiny doesn’t mean it comes easy.⁠

(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration image: artist’s own


ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson⁠
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Isn’t it interesting – even though you have everything in you to be just the version of you the universe or fate or chance imagined – you still have to decide to lean into it.⁠
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Just because it’s your destiny doesn’t mean it comes easy.⁠

‘True North’ – Day 205/365

‘True North’ – Day 205/365

Talking doesn’t equal doing, just like not searching won’t equal finding.

(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration: common license photography


ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE

Yesterday I put all my notifications off and sat my butt down and got two paintings done.⁠
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I did that because I desperately wanted to make time to do paying work🙃 AND to create my vision boards. It’s important to me and I knew if I didn’t carve time for it, they would never come together. After talking about doing it for months, the ‘I’m-gonna-conversations’ felt less like self-tricked productivity and more like poison.🤢⁠
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One of the captions I cut out was ‘find your true north’. ⁠
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I realised if talking doesn’t equal doing, not searching won’t equal finding….. ⁠
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Part of why I’ve been struggling recently, maybe it’s because I’m approaching the last quarter, is the whisper of ‘what if this goes no-where?’, ‘what if you don’t find squat at the end of a 365 challenge?’. ⁠
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Tim Ferris shares good advice on this. He says make fear lists and then debunk them, so as to not live in the fear in your mind.⁠
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So, here’s my fear on this one – if doing 365 paintings takes me nowhere nearer my great hopes and dreams then the worst thing to come of it is that I ‘wasted an entire year painting’. BUT, I could reframe it as ‘I rejigged my freelance work in such a way that I was ABLE to spend a YEAR painting just for the sake of trying something new’. Suddenly if that’s the worst that comes from it, I no longer feel as fearful. ⁠
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Still a little ‘uh-oh’ but no ‘yeegahds-I’m-gonna-fall-off-the-edge’ fear.⁠

And that feels like progress in a good direction. A true north direction even, maybe? Fitting for northern lights, I felt. 😁⁠
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📸 inspiration via @unsplash

‘Jolly Good Woods’ – Day 201/36

‘Jolly Good Woods’ – Day 201/36

Today I lay in the pine needles – they looked so content in their patch of sunlight and I wanted some of that for myself. While I was becoming one with the forest floor it occurred to me that pine needles are just a great many tiny trees on their sides. Or, looking up that the pine trees are just really large upright standing pine needles. Then it occurred to me that I could use the same techniques I’ve started using for grasses for trees, albeit slightly amended. It was an odd moment, with odd thoughts.⁠ This painting is a result of those thoughts.

(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration: the forest floor


ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE

I know an ‘Elsa’ (and no, she’s not the one from Frozen 🙄). Today we walked in some woods together.⁠
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At one point I lay in the pine needles – they looked so content in their patch of sunlight and I wanted some of that for myself. While I was becoming one with the forest floor it occurred to me that pine needles are just a great many tiny trees on their sides. Or, looking up that the pine trees are just really large upright standing pine needles. Then it occurred to me that I could maybe use the same techniques I’ve started using for grasses for trees, albeit slightly amended. It was an odd moment, with odd thoughts.⁠
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Seeing me lying there in my patch of sun, Elsa remarked, “that looks jolly good!”.⁠
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And so I came home to paint that thought of jolly good woods. (And I made them frosty blue – because 1) have you felt the weather outside today? and 2) can you ever have enough double-entendres?)⁠