2022 ART YEAR IN REVIEW

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

I'm finally back in the UK, after 3 weeks in my parents' home in France. :)

So far, this month has been a whirlwind of admin and papers to sign as our completion date on our house is fast approaching.

Did I mention that my partner and I were buying our first home? More on that later!

First, I want to look back on 2022, more specifically the art I created and the projects I completed, all with your precious help. 

Let's go!

Artistically, this year has been about experimenting with my style, and fine-tuning the elements I am ambivalent or unsure about.

I have been asking myself many questions about my style, but one really stood out this year  : Do I want to use predominantly muted tones in my work?

I am by no means done with this questioning process, but I am definitely getting closer to a style that resonates with me with the right frequency.

"White Flowers" (above) was my first painterly exploration of the year, and helped me settle the question of whether I want to include outlines in my work or not (I do), as well as whether I prefer a smoother painted look or a lighter, more watery aesthetic (clearly, I have a stronger affinity for the latter).

⇧⇧My first big painting of 2022 was "From Within" (above). 

I love this piece, although it did help me make some decisions with regards to muted tones, which was the stylistic question I was asking myself by painting it.

This piece is on my "Might repaint again" list.
I love the concept, but I don't connect with the colour scheme. 

⇧⇧My next big(ish) piece was Reeds (above). 

These 2 pieces on a theme were not stylistic experiments. In fact, I stuck closely with my comfort zone for them. These were created specifically to become the packaging art for my brush set collab with Craftamo. 

⇧⇧Next were 3 little paintings (above) created with the intention of exploring light and colour, in conjunction with my ongoing quest to answer the question of whether I want to use those damn muted tones more or not.

The one above on the left was another attempt at using unsaturated colours, as well as trying to create a glow effect via value and colour contrast. I like that little painting a lot, but it doesn't really feel like me, you know? There is something a little harsh in the features and the textures, and I think I like my characters to feel softer...

The piece in the middle was a little bit more of a failure in my eyes, the style doesn't fit what I was aiming for at all, and the concept didn't work well in my opinion.
On the other hand, I do really enjoy the much brighter skin tone and the blue and yellow colour combination. 

The 3rd piece, on the right, explored the same questions, but with more emphasis on saturation and value contrast, and less of an accent on colour and light.

My conclusion from these 3 small pieces was unsurprising ; I prefer muted tones to bright colours, but not so much that I want all my work to be muted (a question I was definitely asking myself for a while) + I have a strong affinity for strong contrast and bright light.

⇧⇧Around the same time came "The Best I Could Do" (above).
This one was intended as a small, quick painting, similar to the 3 above, but I feel that it earned its place into my more finished body of work, as the concept feels more complete.
I was still asking myself the "muted tones or nah?" question at this point, but had already started to settle on my desire to use more dramatic lighting in my work.

This concept strikes something deep in me, and I find myself drawn to visiting it again often. I think it holds a lot of potential but hasn't quite found its final form yet.
I am quite keen to try painting it again, but without changing the composition, to see what other directions a different paint scheme could take it in. 

Next was "Inner Critic" (above).

I think this was my first time painting live on stream in years!
It was originally meant as a demo for my brush set, but it has ended up standing out a little this year (for me at least) as an experiment with my painting style (not my colour or value choice, but more so the type of texture and look of my brush strokes). Especially regarding painting skin. 

One of the very many ways in which I feel tugged one way or the other depending on my mood is regarding my painterly style ; do I want my paintings to be smooth or textured? Realistic or stylised? 

I don't think this is a question with a fully satisfactory answer, and I will never be fully content with whatever direction I go with, but it is the nature of my having chosen art as a job that I do need to make a decision and stick with it, at least for a little while. 

"Inner Critic" helped me pick a direction that I enjoy and will try to work with for the time being. 

"Entwined" and "Star Crossed" (above) were, like Reeds, not meant as experiments, as they were created specifically for a gallery show and therefore I had a limited amount of time to get them done, and so resorted to sticking to my comfort zone. 

They still lead me to some minor stylistic break-throughs though, as I had always struggled with smaller pieces and including as much detail as I wanted in them, but those 2 pieces showed me I had evolved and felt a lot more comfortable in smaller formats than I used to.

Which lead me to decide to explore that a lot more towards the end of the year.

"Ardent" and Star Struck" (above) were part of the small format experiments I did after realising I actually enjoyed working small a lot more than I used to.

Because these weren't created with a deadline, I took a few more risks with them, and opted to try out mood-based skin colours rather than realism-based ones.
This might sound silly, or tiny, as far as experiments go, but something my neurodivergent brain struggles with a lot when it comes to painting is diverging from reality.
That might make you chuckle given the concepts I work with, and it does perplex me somewhat too, but I can't deny that straying from realistic colours is a struggle for me.

So these small pieces were efforts to step out of that particular comfort zone, and see if it was a type of stylistic choice that resonated with me.
I will be honest, the jury is still out on that one, because I do enjoy alternative colour-schemes, but they are very difficult for me to wrap my brain around, so I will need more practice before I make a decision. 

My main artistic undertaking at the end of 2022 was "Join Me", my very first piece of fan art. 

This painting was an homage to season 4 of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, as well as a tip of the hat to my Game of Thrones colleagues, who worked on the creature, Vecna (on the right in my painting).

I intend to do more of these types of pieces in the future, as I would like to build up my portfolio with the intention of working for companies at some point.
I would like to expand my practice into commission work , ideally for book, comic and album covers as well as posters and merch. 

While I didn't do Inktober this year, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some ink work.
"Lily" was a redraw of a 2017 piece, and was a welcome injection of confidence, as it really showed me just how much I have grown artistically in the last 5 years!

This piece is one of my personal favourites from this year, and has made me keen to try redrawing a few others...

I had a stall at a real-life market towards the end of the year and I decided to try and sell some original art there.

Big pieces are tricky to bring to that sort of thing, as they require insurance, as well as a decent sized space, neither of which I could get this time round. So instead, I opted to create a few tiny paintings.

While these weren't particularly exploratory, they were tremendous fun, and felt, like one of you pointed out to me, like "old-time Myriam".
Two of these sold to a truly wonderful long-time supporter of my work, but the rest of them weren't all that popular at the market so I will be putting them up on my store very soon.

I will probably create more of these this year, as I really enjoy rummaging around charity shops for small and unusual frames to put them in, and I have a few left to fill!

WORKS IN PROGRESS

Finally, I started a couple of bigger concepts this year also.
I didn't finish either of them, but I tinker with them regularly, and I hope to be able to share the completed paintings with you in the coming months. 

The piece above is proving...extremely challenging to say the least.
This is already the 3rd time I am attempting to paint it and I'm not even sure I'm not going to let this version go and try again, to be honest. 

Luckily, every attempt brings me closer to what I want from it, but it is also a big lesson in humility, patience and perseverance, haha.
Maybe 2023 will be its year...;)

Lastly, the above piece is probably the one I am most excited to complete this year (so far). I have a fairly precise vision for it (as opposed to the previous one in this post), and I am genuinely looking forward to finally starting the painting process in earnest!

And to sharing all of that with you as I go. :)

MY 2023 DAILY DOODLE DIARY

2023 was my 3rd year holding a Daily Doodle Diary, and while you will have seen all my pages already if you have been a patron this year, here are a few of my favourites.
I will also be uploading a complete video tour on here very soon!

SOME OF MY FAVOURITE SKETCHES

While I definitely don't sketch as much as I used to these days, I do think my sketching style has become a little more refined, and I have created some of my favourite drawings this year.
Here are a few that stood out to me :

FAILED PIECES

And of course, not every experiment and attempt works out, so here are a few of my failed paintings.
All of these are parts of concepts I still want to explore further, but that I couldn't quite execute in a satisfactory way at the time of the painting.
I will try again one day...

And that's it for this post!

I was initially planning to also include all the projects I completed this year as well as future projects I want to undertake in this post, but I think it is substantial enough as it is, so perhaps I'll write those up in a separate update, if you are interested?

For now, thank you so much for being here and allowing me to explore my craft and my visual universe in this way. 

I know 2022 was a little quieter on here than previous years but I hope 2023 will be fuller and more creative than ever!

I wish you all a most wonderful new year, and I look forward to sharing more art with you very soon. 

All my love, 

Myriam