Second up get the work life balance back. After a busy year setting up the gallery I'm hoping to find a better work flow and spend as much time with my kids before they become teenagers and I'm no longer cool to hang out with. What the last 10 years has taught me is that life is going too fast and kids grow up quickly so it's time to grab hold of it and cherish the moment.
Thirdly sketch more, I know this sounds basic for an artist as the sketchbook is where all the ideas are put down, recorded and developed. My aim this year is to get out of my studio more, get on my bike and sketch from life. While my photographs are a good back up source of creative inspiration, the humble sketches are where I want to capture the essence of the scene I'm painting, to make them authentic to me and create more freedom of movement and mark making within my work. As an artist you never stop learning and developing your skills and getting back to the basics of drawing is a good starting point.
Fourthly starting up a business in the beginning can be exciting and there is a rush of interest and custom for your work, but over the years I have learn't that the life of an artist is a rollercoaster with many highs and lows. I am mindful that the gallery is only in it's infancy and will require to be worked at to keep it current and interesting and that we are only in the beginning of our journey as gallery owners!
Lastly the environment, I couldn't close without a thought for the environment and the environmental footprint of our business. We have many things in place already like only using sustainably sourced board for our greetings cards and packaging them in bio degradable sleeves, our cards arrived with us in plastic free packaging from our printers and we dispatch our orders in clean reused boxes. We are trying to phase out bubble wrap, if we do uses bubble wrap it will have been donated to us for reusing purposes. We are introducing paper tapes and corrugated card for wrapping prints. I still feel there is more to do but like everything it is a work in progress and we aim to do our bit.
That's probably enough for us to be getting on with for the moment and thank you for reading the contents of my brain. Maybe I will look back on this in 10 years time and see how much of this I put into action?
