On my desk lies the most beautiful, expansive sheet of bright-white, BLANK, cold press, watercolour paper. I emphasize “blank”. Before I set about making the first mark on it, I contemplate the various stages I will travel through on my journey to producing something fabulous and calling it “done”. It seems a never-ending process. I sigh, then I embark on my ten phase journey.

Let’s start with Motivation and Inspiration, which go hand in hand and basically speak for themselves. It actually helps to be in the mood to paint and rearing to go! The most effective tool for me is undoubtedly travel! Being in a new, fascinating place and mindset always does the trick. For now I will settle on this lovely cup of hot tea, strategically placed to my left to avoid yet another dunking of a Rose Madder-filled paintbrush. The fact that I’m drinking from a favourite hand-thrown mug from my favourite pottery, ‘Earthworks’, in Barbados plays its part.

Of course, having a Concept might be useful as well. This has proven to be a tough one at times. Often this is the part of the journey I struggle with most. I even think it would serve me well to invite the unprovoked innocence of a five-year-old to blurt out, “Paint a double rainbow over a sailboat in a cyclone! Or paint a pink unicorn jumping over the lighthouse on a pogo stick!”…anything to give the imagination a good ole jolt and frighten it back to reality.

Before unearthing the Emotion required for me to lift a paintbrush and to dip it into a delicious pool of Dioxazine Purple I must first lift a pencil. That would be nothing less than a 5B pencil these days, preferably a 6B. That’s how I role. The Drawing is the crux of the whole piece for me, while the Painting is the easy part. Once I nail the Composition and the drawing, the painting literally flows from there, my paintbrush meandering freely all over its open field with the confidence and curiosity of a wild child. At this stage I recall the words of encouragement I’ve given to many of my students over the years, to just “free up and paint with wild abandon because often mistakes can be beautiful!” From here on in, for me, all that is required is time, patience, and perseverance…and lots of it! My floral paintings tend to “paint themselves”. My passion for floral painting has never waned, it has only deepened…the plumper the petal the better! I am always in the mood to paint a flower. After all these years I can still lose myself in its mysterious intricacies

I had this dear friend Sue, a lovely journalist from Cornwall England, who penned a dazzling description of my floral paintings. Her words touched me then as they do now and I will share them here, as I have done many times before.

‘The work of Lisa Quinn exists in a world of its own, a world seen through the eye of perhaps a beetle, a world magnified and contained, circumscribed with a fathomless outer darkness. Lisa has developed techniques that take the viewer into startingly close, detailed studies of her observations that often verge on the surreal.”

In the words of French Impressionist, Edgar Degas, ‘Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.’ I am deeply grateful to Sue for opening my eyes to the mystery of my own work and helping me to appreciate it in a more intimate way. I make a vow with myself to dive deeper into that ‘fathomless darkness’, as if plunging fearlessly into waters the colour of Indigo, not always the familiar, comforting turquoise that puts me at ease.

Depending on the level of detail the painting process can go on for weeks or intermittently for months. There was a time when I would become restless or bored, and sneak away from one piece to begin another, even though the only person I was really sneaking away from was myself. That would either lead to a more gratifying piece being produced or another addition to the LQ Gallery of Unfinished Works, which now houses an extensive collection which has been moved from under my bed into one of my file drawers, a collection well worth its own exhibition. We could call this show ‘The Struggle’ or ‘Distraction’.

The best feeling of all comes when I manage to hit that painting zone I crave where I disappear into my own world and nothing or no one can pry the paintbrush out of my fingers. Hours go by and I’m unaware. The blank, white paper is transformed right before my eyes and the “lights begin to come on”, one by one, as my husband would say during one of his pop ins at the studio to bring me a snack. (bless him) Toward the end of the painting I become ridiculously detailed, adding bits to it that no one would notice but me. Actually I doubt I’ll even be able to identify these time-consuming, additional flourishes myself!. I just won’t call the piece finished until I’ve filled every nook and cranny, which completely sends me around the bend.  After all this to’ing and fro’ing, if the piece of work hasn’t morphed itself into a masterpiece, there’s a darn good chance that I’ve ended up grabbing the closest pair of scissors, identifying my favourite section of the painting and furiously cutting it into some version of a diptych or triptych, just to calm my fury. Once I give myself permission to declare the painting “done”, I give it the once-over and eye up the best location for the LQ Signature. If signing the painting is the icing on the cake, then Framing it is definitely that pretty little cocktail umbrella in a pina colada at the beach! I LOVE a visit to the Framer. Firstly, I arrive at my framer’s studio and the kettle is on, what more could I ask for?! The careful consideration of the kaleidoscope of colours in mat choices, the valued and admired expertise from the framer, the endless choices of moldings which may range from rustic distressed wooden to opulent, gilded golden makes this much-loved activity both fascinating and painful at the same time. At some point it requires a decision to be made. This can not only be a time-consuming, intense exercise, but a most enjoyable one for me. Actually I believe the framing process really is for me. I say this without apology. When my framer calls to tell me the piece is ready I literally drop what I’m doing, jump in the car and zoom off to collect it, and I cannot describe my excitement. For me this is the culmination of all the emotion I had to pull out of myself to produce the thing, so whether I own this baby for five minutes or five years I love to marvel at it for a little while. So I hoist it into its chosen place of honour on the wall in my studio, take in its journey, from its first pencil mark to this majestic presentation and I savour it.

At some point through this winding journey to “done” an appropriate Title for the piece would reveal itself…or not. This is something I just don’t like to force. The title, ‘Untitled’, surely wears thin after a while, and quite frankly after years of dreaming up all sorts of fancy, emotive titles I’m just done. Maybe this would be a good time to smuggle that same five year old back in here to snag a few ideas…something outrageous like Popcorn Poodle. (Remember I said, “I’m done.) Just to prove this to you let me share with you some of my faves from my list of Most Uninspiring Titles which hit the nail right on the head. We have, ‘Blue Bowl’, ‘Blue Boat’, ‘The Patio’, ‘Yellow Gate’. How about ‘Pink Hibiscus and ‘Yellow Lily’? I promise you I am not making this stuff up, these names are on my website. Yup!

However now and then I can pull one out of the hat. There are a few titles that even in their simplicity really resonate with me because I know they came from a place within and did not require much contemplation at all. Here are some of my faves – ‘Love Shack’, ‘Dream Bermuda’, ‘Early Monday Morning’ and ‘Meandering’. A few of my fave-faves are ‘Flor de los Suenos’ (Flower Of Dreams), ‘Angel Lily’, ‘Dream Catcher’ (thank you @vmdselfcare xox) ‘Golden Chalice’, ‘Sylvia’s Grace’, ‘Grace and Glory’, ‘Sun Jewel’!!

When all else fails this is nothing that a quick browse through the paint shop swatch book can’t fix. No shortage of titles there! Someone must have taken a cruise through orbit, around the sun, the moon and the stars and had a field day! ‘Dawn Light’, ‘Glistening Sea’, ‘Peach Country’, ‘Ice Age’, ‘Moonbeam’, ‘Moonshine’, ‘Starlet’, ‘Cloud Nine’ – I could peruse them all day.

I’ve also always enjoyed the whimsy and creativity behind names of boats and horses like. ‘Peace and Rice’ (boat) and ‘Sweet Majesty’ (horse). By the way I have an insanely long list of those! Ok, here are one or two…or three more boat names I picked up at a boat club in Rock, Cornwall, England (love it there!)…’Twist & Shout’, ‘Slippery When Wet’, ‘Chicks Love It’, ‘Gone With The Wind’…Ha!

One year, in preparation for an art exhibition in San Francisco I invited a group of friends over to my studio to view my recent collection of works. At some point after several devoured bottles of merriment, as a joke I invited my friends to offer up any thoughts on titles for my new collection, a task they shockingly took far more seriously than I had planned for. Every guest immediately sprang into action with the enthusiasm of a college freshman to conquer the task at hand and dazzle the “teacher” I might add cheekily. With the nimbleness of Old St. Nick they dispersed throughout my cozy little studio and went straight to their work, upstairs downstairs like Wee Willie Winkie , huddled in groups of two or three, heads tilted to the side in studious contemplation, jotting down notes on the tablets I provided them with, engaging in passionate dialogue and debate over the mood or the impact of the painting. They barely noticed me as I crept past them, stepping lightly so as  not to disturb any thought processes. Once or twice I was asked to provide context to a piece in order for an idea to make sense, but other than that my only job was to keep the wine flowing! Eventually every piece of work was exquisitely named – ‘Tea Party’, ‘Trilogy’, ‘An Apple A Day’, ‘Taste Of Provence’, ‘First Kiss’, ‘Journey Through Normandy’, ‘Our Room’…gosh what happy memories… and the show went on!

Happy 2022 Everyone! Here’s to more Inspiration, Love, Laughter, Vino, Friendship, Creativity and Dreams coming true!