Artist of the week
A day in the life of Diane Jennings
7:30am Wake up as usual to a lovely cup of coffee in bed from long suffering hubby Bill. It takes me a while to come round in the mornings but when I do surface the first thing on my mind is what will I paint today! I sometimes think that this painting lark is bordering on obsession; I seem to eat, drink and think painting!!!
We used to have a large 3 bed-roomed house with a double garage! Now it has turned into a small 3 bed-roomed house with paintings stacked in every corner and a double garage that you have to move something to get anything! We store all the stuff for my classes and craft fairs in there-stands, easels, paints, you name it its in there! Couldn't get a bike in there never mind a car! The latest batch of small oils is hanging drying in there at the moment!
8:30am Downstairs for low fat breakfast after joining weight watchers. Find this hard to do-that's why I've gained weight in the first place – ‘cos I can just get stuck in to painting and forget to eat all day!!!
9am After a successful 3 days at the craft fair and selling several large paintings and loads of small ones, I have to catch up and get organised for the next event which is this Thursday, another craft fair.
I also have a class this weekend so spend 30 mins phoning around the students that are booked to come to my “painting my way” classes, just to make sure that they are still coming. Then I have to do the usual checks and updates on all my websites 3 in total plus my blog, and of course check out what my mates on the artist's forum have been up to.
11:30am. I then decide I'm going to have a finishing off session and round up all the paintings that have been niggling me for a while, just little bits that aren't right, I hang all my work in the living room over the sofa opposite a big mirror and when I sit there( sit?-what's that!) I can view the pics in the mirror and see what needs doing to finish them off, strange but it works!
Get my easel out-Bill made me this easel when I first started painting and I wouldnt part with it for the world-it has had every painting created by me on it and it could tell some stories!! American tourists who stand and stare at it when we do the craft fairs have offered me good money for it! It's a work of art in its self!
Get paints out and finish off the few things that bothered me, nothing major, just a few slight bits need to be changed, add a few more poppies to the 'Summer Day' painting, add some more reflections to the 'Swallow Falls' painting and I have to varnish some of the acrylic paintings to seal them and bring out the vibrant colour.
2pm late having lunch--stop to make salad and coffee, call Bill up from garden where he is making me some new stands for exhibiting my paintings at the craft fairs. The old ones wont fit in the caravan that we have had to buy because we have so many 2 and 3 day craft fairs to do this year!
3pm decide to do some encaustic work using an iron and coloured beeswax. I love to use this to create art-its more unpredictable to do than oils and acrylic, and although you control it to a certain extent the end results can through up some surprises. Strange creatures and faces appear in the melted wax! I spend 4 hours working on some pieces-very happy with the results.
I tend to paint on the spur of the moment-I never plan too much what I'm going to do-I put out my paints and go from there--unless I am working on a commission in which case I have to also make sure I remember to take loads of photos to email the commissioner and await approval!
I love doing commissions; to be able to combine someone else's ideas with mine gives me such a buzz all the way through the process!
7pm Load all the new work on to the computer and spend the rest of the evening putting all the pictures and details onto my sites! I spent an hour in the evening updating my work onto the copyright site that I use to protect my work. Enjoyed several large vodka and tonics along with some low fat sandwiches (thanks Bill).
10pm go down stairs to Bill---sit at last on my comfy sofa-look at next batch of paintings in mirror---- and decide what I will do tomorrow--
