Coming back to painting after a summer of distractions with the gallery, glass and jewellery work. The aerial stuff is challenging me – I have so many ideas and it is so hard to paint through ideas without the idea taking over the work and feeling preconceived. I`ve turned all my work to the wall and started again, from the ground up, from the paint up. I just have to spend time with it, engage with the materials and trust the process…lots of old lessons coming around again, as ever!
There`s always a reason to postpone…so I have to stick to routine….just do it and reserve all judgements, just go with the feelings and let the paintings take care of themselves. I don`t understand why it always feels so scarey!
I decided to go back to keeping a journal, so that there is an outlet for the cerebral stuff and maybe it will get less in the way of painting.
I`ve had a big turn-out in the studio and am planning an autumn Studio Sale for the end of November. This has created more space for new work and resulted in a tidier studio space. I will sell off sketches, studies and unfinished pieces online. I`m also going to give a 10% discount on jewellery from late November in the run-up to Xmas, so have been busy photographing my new pieces ready to put on my website.
There is always lots of administrative work to do at this time of year, advertisements to be designed ready for next years guidebooks and newspapers, and invitations to be printed ready for the New Year Show. This year I am thinking about how to promote my jewellery, whether to put it out in other galleries to sell more work without having the expense or work involved in a whole raft more publicity and advertising. The problem is that I have been in control of promoting and selling my work for so long now that I am loath to hand that over to somebody else, but I think it might be a good idea to consider it for the jewellery at least. There is nothing like a load of administrative work to take the fun out of something!
I have been redesigning my website this summer, but now I need to start using some software to manage the content. Originally I designed and wrote my website using html 10 years ago and I now need something more sophisticated so that I don`t have to copy and paste code on each and every page by hand every time I want to change something or put up a new page.
On the home front, today we got a puppy. Alfie is a Cocker Spaniel/Poodle cross, he is 10 weeks old and a bundle of energy and fun. Ruby is ecstatic, she has wanted a dog for so long. Hopefully he won`t be too distracting and will ensure that I get out for walks more often!
Linda Norris Studio Blog 
