The Story Behind the Painting: My Brain 2023
A Journey Inside My Mind
Acrylic on canvas
Completed 21/02/2023
This painting is part of a series of paintings, or at least an intended series of paintings, that commenced with this one. For what it’s worth I intend to buy a same sized canvas at the beginning of every year and off the top of my head chip away at what I might picture my mind (or brain) to look like. There was no reference image for this, no visual cue to point me in any direction, just my own imagination. It may sound like it could be an easy thing to do given the free styled nature of the piece, but if this year’s was anything to go by it’s actually really difficult to do. I may be quite surreal in my art, but abstract I am not particularly.
February of 2023 was a bit shit to be honest, so was January. The hot water and heating decided they would like to take a winter break and leave me cold. I hate the cold. I was bundled into a small room with a crappy electric heater and many layers of clothes trying to keep warm. Oh how I despised it. That particular house was cold enough with the central heating and hot water working in my opinion.
Technically this isn’t my first My Brain painting. In fact the idea for this came several months previously from a friend who was attempting to paint her brain to express the recently diagnosed ADHD that had been plaguing her. I used to do art meet ups at a community hub near where I was living and she came along for a session. I took inspiration from what she brought along with her and I turned it into her brain, in watercolour. Yes, I do occasionally work in watercolour, I’ll have to post a few. She adored it so bought it, took it home, and as far as I know has loved it ever since. From my point of view I sold a piece of art, my first piece. I find it strange that despite the majority of my work being in acrylic with the odd oil painting here and there that the two paintings that I have managed to sell were both watercolours. The first “My Brain” I painted was actually my friend’s brain, but I don’t count that because this point of this series is that it’s about my brain.
A week or two before I had acquired a set of new paintbrushes, very long overdue at that point. It felt amazing to work with brushes that didn’t resemble something used to clean a toilet with. New brushes make any and all lines so much easier to paint, far more precise. Those once new brushes are now looking a little bit worn and I am gradually working on replacing them brush by brush. <Shameless plug, I could replace those worn brushes much more efficiently if you donate to me over on Buy Me A Coffee. I know that on these things it always seems like everyone’s living their best, but I promise that’s not necessarily the truth of it and a little help would go a seriously long way for me at the moment.> It was quite a challenge to find a perfectly round item to trace the line of the circle in the middle, a problem that persists with the two that followed on from this one. In the end I think it was the lid from a saucepan that did the trick.
I didn’t think too hard about the colours used for this, but I do remember thinking something about making sure that somewhere in it there was a lot of contrast. Purple and orange is a strange colour combination for me but it’s one that suits this piece brilliantly and I wouldn’t have it any other way because of that. I’m also quite the fan of the detail on the larger leaves on the outer perimeter of the circle, new brushes and all that jazz. The outside of the painting is a combination of alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, and lemon yellow. I think it gives the painting a warm and spicy feeling. The bit of the painting surrounding the circle is a cop-out interpretation of my brain safe in the loving hands of the Universe. Go easy on me, hands are really tricky to draw. I’ve improved a lot since this, there is evidence, but yeahhhhh… The blue markings in the hands? Well, it looks better than just leaving it a few shades off neon orange and doing nothing else so that’s why they’re there.
I like to think of these My Brain paintings a challenge of my current painting abilities on an annual basis. This one was easy compared to the two that have followed on from it, I think it might be called having a beginner’s mind. This year’s one was hideously difficult and has changed my views on AI slightly because of it, not because AI will replace my art, but because some sort of visual prompt would be of extreme use for such paintings. My mind’s eye can only hold a fixed image in it for so long until it’s distracted by shiny things. Yes, I know I meditate, but it hasn’t given me superpowers and it hasn’t given you any either so shhhhhh!!!
I don’t know when I’ll show you My Brain 2024, but I will. There are only three of these in existence right now, the next one is due in 2026. So far it looks rather like a journey through the many layers of my mind and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be an intriguing one as the years go on.
Thank you for reading this post today!
If you enjoyed this post and would like to support me on my artist journey then please consider donating to me at Buy Me A Coffee on the link below. I’m not kidding when I say I could do with new brushes! Your help is gratefully received.
