Painting With 'Mr P'

The COVID19 pandemic has been hard for everyone’s health, both physically and mentally. Many people I know have been throwing themselves into creative practice to cope with the physical constraints and the mental pressures of lockdown.

I’ve been watching Grayson Perry’s art club and been inspired to experiment more with different materials and subject matters. This has helped my approach to the weekend painting challenges my chum Liam and I have been doing over the last nine weeks. Giving us a welcome distraction from the things we would normally be doing at a weekend but now can’t.
It’s only now as life slowly returns to a new kind of normal we are struggling to find the time to commit, but I think we’ve enjoyed it so much though we’ll keep it up. https://paintingwithmrp.com/new-work/

I’ve missed my weekly fix of Wednesday life drawing, but the lack of this has forced me to try more portrait painting, model making and collage.
I’ve been sharing my work, and talking to others who are using art as a way to express themselves and cope with new and evolving challenges. www.parkinsonsart.co.uk

This time has also allowed me to do some socially distanced painting with friends. Just enjoying the company of another person who gets the same pleasure from painting. It’s a really satisfying thing to do and I hope to do a lot more of. I’ve also been talking to a few people who have taken up sketching and painting for the first time since childhood and watching them get over the initial embarrassment and start to enjoy the process of creating.

So COVID-19 has brought me and others an appreciation of a fresher, more care free approach to my art, as Grayson Perry said “Creativity is mistakes”.  In his recent art club he also said something like (apologies Grayson): If you want art to be perfect, then do photography – it’s the mistakes that give our art style.

I think art is for everyone. There’s no right or wrong, good or bad,  just enjoy the stylish mistakes x