HELLO! I’m Hazel and welcome to my very FIRST Substack (trumpet please). Here you will be greeted with art marks from my heart, sweat and tears included.
As an artist, Marks ARE my words but I have always wanted to write engagingly because, as those who know me have noticed, I thrive on connecting with people and on expressing myself. But to be perfectly honest, I’ve never considered myself very good at writing (read, very bad actually) and I can tell you I was scared stiff writing this. Procrastination personified I’d say!
I wanted to be part of this Substack community to get away from the frenetic, forgotten after 30 seconds feelings felt on Instagram and Facebook. I'm still on there, but hope to connect with as many of you as possible right here. And of course, I’d love you to have a look at my work, my kind of words, to get a real flavour of who I am.
Some comments I’ve received
“Such depth, energy and mystery. Well done! “- Susan Hart
“Wow. It has really become powerful and dramatic. Great work! “- Tara G. Lucky
"I like the abstractedness and your use of pastels. Line and movement in the pieces. You make pastels look painterly." Connie Cathcart
Spatulas, trowels, brushes…
Anyway, back to my favourite kind of words - MARKS … made with an abundance of tools like spatulas, trowels, brushes, roller thingies (you know, the sort you get dog hair off your cloths with), you name it and it counts for mark making. I paint in both acrylic and soft pastel. Whichever « speaks » to me loudest for a particular subject or feeling, gets to partner me in my dance with my painting surface.
Colour, experimentation, play, I love it! It also seems to fit in nicely around our extremely demanding project of building a house…… aargh !! Sometimes it’s a meditational process and other times a welcome relief! But you know what?…Amazing results come from working intuitively. Not necessarily the whole piece but but just a tiny part of it. Little jewels appear which I either save for reference or create something I can share … like unique greeting cards or a mounted piece. I wonder if it's the same with writing – playing with words, using them intuitively. Do you think little gems appear with words too? But play and experimentation are so important in the creative process. It takes a lot of these studies, using a lot of paint, paper, time and work to produce a finished painting. Contemplation too - a huge chunk of reflection, musing and deliberation occurs before a finished work of art appears. As I write this, I'm beginning to realise that creating a painting or writing a piece for publication must be very similar.
If you'd like to know more about this piece, click here
Before I go…
Thank you to the accomplished writers and artists I’ve met on Substack and for the help and encouragement received so far. I feel welcome and have SO much more interesting reading to bury my nose into. Once I get used to the technicalities of this platform I will hurry to recommend and re-stack my favourite authors.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and that my art tickles your fancy!
I just love that first image - totally drew me in. Glad to be a part of your journey :-)
Congratulations! Lovely to see your work here