The Practice Journal
Finding My Way Home as an Artist
After finishing a 12 week workshop this summer, I found myself settling into a direction for my artwork. Not a rigid plan, but a thread that seems to connect everything I want to make. I don't know how long it will last. It could be six months. It could be years. My guess is that it will be years.
I've been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. Most of that time I've simply made things that interested me. Birds, animals, flowers, landscapes, little moments that caught my attention. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working that way. In fact, I think curiosity is one of an artist's greatest strengths.
But I've always sensed there was something deeper underneath the work. Some quiet current I hadn't quite named.
This workshop was designed to help artists discover who they are, what they truly want to create, and how to build a practice around that vision. It turned out to be exactly what I needed.
The word I came away with was belonging.
Not belonging in the sense of fitting in.
Belonging in the sense of finding myself in relationship with a place, a creature, a season, or a moment.
That feels very different.
I don't paint dramatic stories. I'm drawn to small acts of connection. A quiet garden path. Beach foam at the edge of the tide. An old window. A curious rabbit. A flower that reminds me of walking with my mother through her garden.
Again and again, I find myself asking the same question:
Where do I belong?
And more often than not, the answer is simply:
Right here.
My work is becoming less about describing subjects and more about creating a feeling. I want my paintings to invite people to slow down, pay attention, and reconnect with the world around them. I want them to feel like belonging.
As I move forward, I have a simple question to guide every painting:
Does this create a sense of belonging?
If the answer is yes, then I'm probably headed in the right direction.
If you're curious about the work that led me here, you can browse the flipbook I created during the workshop:
https://designrr.page/?id=510643&token=3347406451&type=FP&h=5996
At the moment I'm finishing several different bodies of work, including my Hollyhock Series, a collection of portraits inspired by my grandmothers and great-grandmothers, a series of Maine landscapes, and plenty of small studies that simply keep the joy of painting alive.
If you'd like to follow along as these projects unfold, I'd love to have you join me on Substack:
https://amwelsh.substack.com
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