All the colours of nature come to life in spring.


I absolutely love this time of year, how could I not? For an artist it's wonderful!


The view from my studio is spectacular at this time of year any time of year in fact, but as I move further down the garden I love seeing the bluebells in my orchard and the primroses on the slopes.  Nature at its best; playing with  the complementary colours of purple and yellow, springing and singing against each other- it's truly inspirational.

I’ve  enjoyed seeing on the Internet and indeed on the news, the huge number of the fantastic photographs of bluebell woods in and around the area I live in. Three of the most spectacular bluebell woods in the whole of England are in the New Forest just a few miles from my home in Salisbury. Every year it welcomes thousands of visitors walking through a carpet of purple bluebells in dappled light. Everyone thoroughly enjoying watching the colours of nature come back to life after the cold dark winter months. Springtime in southern England reminds me a lot of when you return from a holiday and see the first glimpses of old Blighty from the air. We suddenly realise why it's called a green and pleasant land! The whole landscape really does become lush and verdant and as an artist I very much enjoy watching it the changing colour and light from the view from my studio.

In fact, the intro to my artist’s statement  is ‘inspired by the changing colour and light in nature’. And it is at this time of year that that becomes very apparent. The evenings get longer and lighter and a fantastic pink clouds start appearing in the evening. In addition to the strong greens in the landscape as the trees start growing leaves again, and the ground becomes lush there are incredibly strong patches of yellow popping up on all around Wiltshire as the oil seed flowers bloom into life. It's also a very inspiring time of year for me and my animal collection as I get to visit farms or simply go walking in nearby fields and can see newborn lambs springing around in the field ready for me to draw them!

A recent article claimed that all we need to do for a long and happy life was to eat purple foods, go for a walk every day, and draw. Learning to draw is great fun and going for a walk is just marvellous at this time of year, you cannot fail but to find something that will catch your eye.
Simply seeing colour spring into life as an artist all I want to do is dive in and paint it. The winter months belong to my charcoal sketches, or working from photographs or archives of sketchbooks. But once the spring is here I get to go out and about! I get to draw in the open air and paint.


So this weekend, go and enjoy the sunshine, the bluebells and have the eye of an artist - notice the changing colour and light in nature.

For the majority of my adult life I was a full time teacher, now as a full time artist I'm learning how to organise, my time, life and business, in away I've never had to do before.

As a teacher, there were a myriad of things to organise and remember, the school calendar was a bible, my teaching planner a tome of great import and before conditionally formatted spreadsheets were fashionable, my mark book too, was a work of art. To be honest, I rather liked it. For me one of the perks of teaching was the endless stationery. I love stationery. The childhood ritual of buying a new pencil case for the start of the academic year, never really left me as an adult!

Now free from all this, with only myself to organise, I had grand romantic schemes of linking my digital calendar, across devices, and thus a new age of efficiency would be be born. My scheduled blog posts, commissioned paintings deadlines, art fairs, meetings, appointments, exhibitions would sync seamlessly and this 21st century artist would embrace it.
After not very long at all, I realised I was resisting the digital calendar. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully Appled up and have devices of varying sizes and power, but I just prefer a nice paper diary.

But then, my nice dairy wasn't coming up with the goods either. Too many post-its bulging out all over. Not happy. 

So I went retro. In my university days I had a filofax, the bastion of the London yuppy. I wasn't a yuppy, I was a London Art student, but I still used my filofax all the time, everything was in there, and it worked. I still have my original 1980s filofax, but it's a small one and I fancied investing in new one.

So here's my ultimate list for the best organiser I've ever created.
It works.

A purple Malden filofax A5 size. It's gorgeous.

This filofax isn't serving just as a diary. The normal diary pages simply weren't enough for me. I wanted a full on planner (just like I used to have in my teaching days) but my planner needed to be colourful, beautiful even. It had to be flexible, inspire and motivate me and be aimed at fresh entrepreneurs trying to juggle a shed load of things.
I'm delighted that I have discovered the brilliant Life is crafted planners by Arienne Gorlesh.  They are beautiful, can help you focus on the big picture whilst also​ crafting your daily life and help you create actionable and inspiring goals.
http://lifeiscrafted.com

I write everything there. All those arty appointments, the workshops I run, my social media strategy, a list of photos to upload each day, ongoing painting projects, commissions...you name it, it's in the filofax, just like it was in the 80s!

In addition I've printed out pages from Jennifer Lee's brilliant Right brain business plan. I have a huge RBBP on my wall, but I have some key pages included in my planner so that I can keep developing and growing my business organically.

Just to make things super pretty I also bought myself some pretty dividers from Atelier Days on Etsy. They are gorgeous, properly laminated and will stay beautiful for a long time.

So what have I learned from all this.
I love technology, but only in its place. I can't shake my stationary habit, I love having paper to write on, flick through and muse over. 
Is it really surprising for an artist to be this way?
And if it's working?  Then surely it's right.

During Studio 53’s Winter Open PV I was chatting to a fellow artist who was also extolling the virtues of painting everyday. 


“Sure, I paint everyday” I thought.
 “Well  I sort of do” I reviewed in my mind.
 “Well I definitely draw everyday”.
That at least is true.

I had excuses. 
Tonnes of them.
I’m a solo entrepreneur, I do everything for my business, my website, my twitter feed, my facebook page. I run workshops, I blog, I research, I’m an oil painter which is hard to do on the run, quickly or in a hotel room….la la la.


All these excuses have faded away, because in-between Christmas and New year I read, a much recommended book -  “Daily painting” by Carole Marine.

The basic premis is simple. Paint every day, or at least most days. 
Minimum 4 times a week.
Paint small so that it’s manageable.
The benefits are huge and varied, amongst them:
You’ll be painting in an experimental way, without fear.
You’ll improve your skills rapidly. If you're already a pro you'll find your artistic voice.
And you’ll have loads of paintings from which to learn, or if they’re good, to sell.
The book has a wealth of information for the amateur and professional alike, as it covers  media, composition and colour. I recommend it.

So trying to get one up on a new year’s resolution I started my Daily painting habit just before new year's eve. 

When the weather (and light) is good I want to be outside painting, as a landscape artist it's essential. My years of teaching have led me avoid relying heavily on photographs in the studio, and will only work from them if accompanied by my sketches.


So, inspried by the book, I felt some small still life paintings, in oil would be the way ahead.
I painted the inside of a box with black acrylic paint.
Used a little box inside it and covered it with an old shirt of my husband’s rather than cutting up a big white table cloth.
I cut a hole in one side of the box and stuck an angle-poise lamp through the hole.

Then I picked up a lovely handmade golden pear off of the Christmas tree.
 I placed it in my black cardboard box on my old-shirt-tablecloth.
There it was. A simple, lit still life.
I painted.
I painted two in fact.


So here are my first two paintings using the Daily painting habit.
Both are oil on canvas.
Can’t recommend it enough.


I’ll be posting more.
Many many more.

The best examples of my daily paintings are available to buy from my shop. 

You've probably heard about mindfulness.
It's everywhere at the moment. It's being taught in PSHE in schools. It's being encouraged in work places, it's being incorporated into yoga sessions and in some areas classes are available on the national health.

So what is mindfulness?
In it's simplest form, mindfulness is about paying attention to what is happening right now, without fear or judgement.
The most common way to start practicing mindfulness is meditation. You don't have to sit cross legged and go "ohm", but you do have to be still and focus on the sensations that are happening in your body or directly around at that moment.

Mindfulness has been proven to help with anxiety and depression.

Earlier in the year I was suffering from severe anxiety and panic attacks. It was most unlike me; usually I’m gregarious, one of life’s doers, one of those folks who can get on with it, generally happy and healthy. 
Suddenly (though it must have been creeping up on me for sometime) I’d lost my sense of humour, wasn’t sleeping properly, or eating properly and felt pretty grim. Gradually there appeared to be no pleasure left in my life. Everything seemed to be one endless to do list with no respite or joy. I got worse and worse. Eventually my ever loving husband asked me to visit my Doctor.

My GP recommended Mindfulness.
 I took her advice. There are two books which really helped me Ruby Wax’s "Sane new world" and Mark Williams’ "Mindfulness - finding peace in a frantic world". 
Williams explains : 
Mindfulness pays attention to thoughts, feelings and body sensations to become directly aware of them, and better able to manage them, it has deep roots in ancient meditation practices and also draws on recent scientific advances. Mindfulness is of potential value to everybody to help find peace in a frantic world”.

If that sounds lovely and easy you’re only half right! It is lovely but it’s difficult at first. If you’re so anxious that your brain is buzzing the whole time,  it's surprising difficult to try and slow it down, you have to practice and concentrate.

With this in mind I've developed an ebook which might help people with a way into mindfulness. Starting off with the mediation can be difficult, but I found when I had a pencil in my hand it became easier. I had something to concentrate on. I had a sensation to feel, the way the pencil moved on the page; the mark it made. Somehow this method helped me develop my focus and become more mindful.

After really working hard on mindfulness for a few weeks, my anxiety levels decreased, I was back at work and painting again. I felt better. My humour returned. It wasn't effortless but my goodness that change was remarkable.

My ebook (available very very soon) contains the simple exercises I developed while I was learning mindfulness. Sometimes I practice mindful breathing and I don't need to do any mindful drawing to fully concentrate on the moment.  But on tough days, or days when my mind won't settle down and be quiet, I find that drawing on mindfulness helps  me tremendously. You don't have to be able to draw at all! You don't have to be creative or artistic. Drawing mindfully is about focusing on what you are doing at that moment.

You can access sneak previews of my ebook on the members page. Sign up with your email  and you'll be sent a password.
You email won't be passed on to anyone else, and you won't be swamped with emails (I send about 6-8 newsletters per year)

Try Drawing on mindfulness, if you want to join the many people living happier lives, mindfully.

Creative people have creative blocks from time to time. And I believe that all people, even the "non-creative" ones can still have creativity in their life in some form or other.
I think it's a genuine need to be creative, to be inspired during our working (and playing) lives. There are a loads of ways we can get inspired.
I found today, my own creative juices weren't flowing very much. I needed to find my own inspiration in order to be more productive in my day.

I found myself being reminded of Rodin's quotation " The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble and to live"

What would make me feel alive today?

The first thing for me was to get outside. Even on a wet September day there is so much to get excited about out there. The berries are coming out, the leaves are changing colour and I found a lovely rosebud...perhaps the last for this season.

 

The light has changed too. It's dusk at 7.15pm today, and will be dark by about 8pm. That might be a bit depressing, as we all love our long summer days. But the change itself is so very interesting. And interesting is inspiring! 
In any event being outside, if only for a short time is good for us, it just is! And even without strong sunshine it helps us embed our circadian rhythms, and thus enable us to have better, restful sleep.

If it's really tipping down outside, and there are days when even the most outdoorsy, might resist venturing out, there's inspiration to be found elsewhere. 
As a rule I try to avoid women's magazines and they tend not be inspirational, and make me feel rubbish! But I've found a lovely one recently. Its called Daphne's Diary and it's a little gem (I'm not affiliated with this magazine, this is genuinely my opinion).  It has lots of little things in there about art, craft, interiors, gardens and workshops. It is so beautifully designed that each page can give you inspiration. I found myself reading an interesting article on fans. Fans. I didn't think I'd do that today!

You can also turn to other people for creative inspiration and support. I love delivering my classes teaching  people how to Oil paint, http://www.louiselutonart.com/classes  and there are so many opportunities to learn something new or develop your skills. In my locality Salisbury arts centre is the go-to place for creative classes, everything from feltmaking to filmmaking! http://www.salisburyartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/workshop-courses.aspx

When I came back into the studio from my little sojourn outside I played about with some ink and then did a line drawing over the top of it. It's really the painters equivalent of a doodle, but the point is it got me going. Made me feel alive. Helped me get on with my creative day.

Sometimes the very best way to get creative is to just get on with it! Whatever your creative release might be: drawing, painting, writing, sewing, making, baking....sometimes you just need to make a start without worrying about the finish.

Take a look at my new creative studio. A space designed for me to work in, to create in, and to teach small classes in. I'm delighted with my new space. A new chapter in my life has really begun.

The first thing I needed to do was to rationalise the space. I needed an office space. I need to be clever with storage as I wanted to keep as much wall space clear to display paintings. I needed to completely change the sink area as it was a mess and simply not fit for purpose. I needed a workspace for students to take part in classes. I needed the entrance to welcoming for visitors. Oh my goodness there was a lot to do.

We started with the entrance area, which needed to accommodate my office area and a place for visitors to sit, enjoy and feel welcome and comfortable. I've chosen some laminate flooring, which looks like white washed floorboards. My Dad, laid the floor for me and it instantly helped me visualise how beautiful a practical space really can be.


I upcycled an old pine dressing table, which used to be a rather redundant table in the corner of the lower level studio. Now it's a whitewashed desk, beautiful and practical.  A homemade and colourful calendar above the desk, to write all over, and my Right Brain business plan, next to me, to keep me inspired and focused. An old pine table, also up cycled and whitewashed to display cards and merchandise on, and a new book case. Some up-cycled directors chairs will complete the look in a couple of weeks. Today, I'm sitting at that pretty little desk, blogging about how beautiful my new space is. What a great feeling

The next area to tackle was the sink area.
I needed to change the orientation of the brilliant metal sink, to allow more than one person to clean up at a time.
I needed to change the cupboards and units to allow for more storage of solvents, mediums and tools. I needed plenty of work surface behind the sink allowing me to re use some solvents, letting the paint settle, thus preventing unnecessary waste to be put down the sink. The transformation is amazing and again, thanks go to Dad's expertise in getting all this fitted.

The main body of the studio has been transformed by removing the cumbersome old drawing boards and replacing them with worktop space with storage and stools beneath. I still have plenty of space for big easels and chests of drawers for sketchbooks, paints and rags. The  white flooring bounces light from the daylight bulbs making a beautiful space to create beautiful works of art.

I am utterly thrilled with the result and can't wait to deliver my first workshops in my new space.
It was well worth all the effort to make the transformation and huge thanks to my family for helping me make this possible.

Making my space a more beautiful space!
My tag line is “make your space a more beautiful place” , the idea being that anyone can enhance the pace they live or work in, with artwork.
This summer has seen massive change in my life, by me leaving full time work ( I have been a full time teacher for over 20 years) to finally devote my time, full time, to being an artist.
I’m lucky enough to have a studio in my garden already.
Over the past few years the studio has been partially occupied by my artwork and easels, combined with a storage space for garden furniture, other stuff,  and has provided us with useful space to lay out food and drink during barbecues and parties.

So, during August, with the help of my Dad and my husband, the space is being re-modelled to become a professional space, rather than a glorified hobby room.

It started with a plan to remove the massive drawing boards and replace them with a workbench, with enough room for four or five people to work. Thus allowing me to teach small classes, something I enjoy a great deal.

Luckily for me, my Dad pointed out, that before we do that, we really ought to put a nicer, and better floor down. Meanwhile my husband (a scientist) suggested I re-worked the sink area enabling not only a wash station for hands and brushes, but also enough space to retain damaging chemicals so that they can be disposed of properly, rather than down the sink. This is easy to achieve when its only me painting, but more difficult to organise when managing four or five painters.

Suddenly the project appeared to be larger, and more expensive than I’d originally anticipated. However this is such an important process to go through. Not only is my studio being changed and re-modelled but so is my mind. I’m making the move, physically, emotionally and intellectually from part time artist to full time professional.

Here are the starting photos. An entrance space, used for storage and a downstairs space for painting. I’ll post the process and finished studio in the coming week.

That’s quite a claim to make. 
Last week I was hanging artwork in Salisbury Medical centre. It’s a collaborative exhibition with other artists from Plain Arts Salisbury, we have  Private View on Monday 28th July 6-8pm. 
Back to the point, Art makes you better. We are hanging our work in various corridors around the medical centre. There was a thoroughly lovely atmosphere while we went about our business unpacking paintings and trying not to get in the way. I was very pleased with my little corridor once I'd finished hanging.
I doubt very much if I’ll sell. I don’t mind one bit if I don’t, because that’s really not the point. The point is still that Art makes you feel better. 
I know this to be true.
Earlier in the year I was suffering from severe anxiety and panic attacks. It was most unlike me; usually I’m gregarious, one of life’s doers, one of those folks who can get on with it, generally happy and healthy. 
Suddenly (though it must have been creeping up on me for sometime) I’d lost my sense of humour, wasn’t sleeping properly, or eating properly and felt pretty grim. Gradually there appeared to be no pleasure left in my life. Everything seemed to be one endless to do list with no respite or joy. I got worse and worse. Eventually my ever loving husband asked me to visit my Doctor.
Salisbury medical centre happens to be my medical centre. There was something so very powerful, hanging up paintings in the very place that less than six months ago, I was sat, blinking back tears, with my stomach in knots and my heart beating out of my chest. I didn't know if I'd ever feel normal again.

How could I have recovered so quickly.
Three things really.
 1. A very good GP who reassured me, gave me a short term prescription to get me back on my feet,  made follow up appointments, listened carefully, believed me.  And she recommended Mindfulness.
2. I took her advice on the mindfulness. There are two books which really helped Ruby Wax’s "Sane new world" and Mark Williams’ "Mindfulness - finding peace in a frantic world". There’s lot being written about mindfulness at the moment, some people write it off as “bunkum”. They're wrong- it’s amazing.
Williams describes mindfulness as 
"an integrative, mind-body based training that enables people to change the way they think and feel about their experiences, especially stressful experiences. Mindfulness pays attention to thoughts, feelings and body sensations to become directly aware of them, and better able to manage them, it has deep roots in ancient meditation practices and also draws on recent scientific advances. Mindfulness is of potential value to everybody to help find peace in a frantic world”.
If that sounds lovely and easy you’re only half right! It is lovely but it’s difficult at first. If you’re so anxious that your brain is buzzing the whole time,  it's surprising difficult to try and slow it down, you have to practice and concentrate. But it really does work.
Evidence from Neuroscientific studies find:

•  changes in those areas of the brain associated with decision-making, attention and empathy in people who regularly practice Mindfulness meditation;
•  that meditation increases the area of the brain linked to regulating emotion, and that it improves people’s attention, job performance, productivity and satisfaction;
•  that meditation increases blood flow, reduces blood pressure, and protects people at risk of developing hypertension: it also reduces the risk and severity of cardiovascular disease, and the risk of dying from it.

After really working hard on mindfulness for a few weeks, my anxiety levels decreased, I was able to reduce the prescribed medication significantly and most importantly I was back at work and painting again. It seems impossible to me now that I was in such a mess that I didn’t even set foot in my studio for three weeks. My goodness. Which brings me on to -
3. Art. Art makes you feel better. For some of us the practice of creating artwork might be the most mindful thing we do, we can get pleasure from it and sometimes it feels as if we are fulfilling a need. A need to create. I can forget all other things when I'm at work on a canvas, I have to be present, my mind doesn't dwell on the past or worry about the future. I'm in the moment.

For others, art gives them pleasure when they look. A picture can remind you of a place or a feeling. Many people feel calm or joy looking at a sea view. When there isn’t a sea view in the Doctor’s surgery,  why not have some paintings to look at instead!

There’s also something so lovely about local artists fulling up public spaces with artwork, and meanwhile the visitors are able to look at real art, made by real people who live up the road. They can discuss the work with other people, strike up a conversation. The people who work in the building too, can have something interesting to walk past each day. 

I can't really find the words to explain how blessed I am to be able to feel well again so quickly, and the joy of putting artwork into a public place, where people come to feel better.

I hope visitors to the practice enjoy the artwork. There are plenty of different styles on offer, different strokes for different folks; hopefully there's something for everyone.
 The work might spark a discussion, a query, a thought, a memory. All good.

Art, can raise a smile, provoke a debate, give you warm fuzzy glow…and can make you feel just a little bit better.

If you are in the Salisbury area, please feel free to come along to Private view on 28th July. Alternatively you can go to the see the exhibition during normal surgery hours 8am-8pm each weekday. Ask at reception on the way in.

Enjoy art; it makes you better.

New year, new start and all that. 
Over the Christmas holidays and festivities I've had the time to catch up with friends and family. Various conversations started with "How's the art going Lou?"  
'Jolly well thanks', but hang on, they all said "Lou"…mmm that's got me thinking. 
Everyone calls me Lou.
 Or Lu. Or Lulu. 
Even my Mum calls me Lulu. 
  Hardly anyone calls me Louise. Even my  sixth form students, when wanting to be a little less formal,  but not too disrespectful, have taken to calling me "Mrs Lutes".
So why am I officially known as Louise Luton when it comes to being an artist? And should I consider changing it?
I think that Lu Luton looks a bit neater than Lou Luton. 
This might also be more memorable for people and easier to look up.
LuLu Luton might be fun but could be problematic. Potential customers and fellow artists might ending up typing in far too many "Lu"s whilst trying to find me over the tinterweb.  Lulululuton. Who knows where it might end!

We all know that Branding is really important, but surely my name is only a tiny part of my brand. 
What do you think? Have you changed your name in business because it sounded better? Alternatively have you stuck to your true name, because there is value in  being truthful in business?
Should I change?
Would it be more memorable?
How much of a difference would it really make?
You comments would be valuable to me.