My Mini Sabbatical

Three day art residency at home

Jul 25, 2023

Last month, I took a mini sabbatical to focus on something that is important to me but I rarely do: painting with oils. Painting is something I’ve done my whole life but with major breaks throughout. The past few years, I’ve focused on watercolors and it’s been a great companion to my ceramics practice. But, I’m always dreaming of getting back to oil painting. I think about it all the time. I have the supplies, the ideas, and even the time for it, yet I’ve painted with oils only 4 times in the past 4 years. It’s not enough and I want this to be a part of who am I and what I do.

I’ve had this urge to paint with oils for a long time, and I’m tired of not acting on it. So, when my partner M had an upcoming fishing trip planned, I thought it would be the perfect time for me to create my dream 3 days at home alone revolving around my tubes of paint. The intention for my mini art residency was to jumpstart and reintroduce this new habit into my daily life without any distractions.

I had a few weeks to plan this out and gave myself some rules to follow. I thrive with constraints and was adamant about no social media, no house chores, no errands and zero work during this 72 hours. I made sure the house was clean prior because I can’t focus properly when surrounded by clutter. And I’m lucky, my husband made extra food for me before he left, so my time in the kitchen was going to be minimal. All my art supplies would be left out, just waiting to be used.

The two days leading up to this self-imposed residency were really busy. To be honest, too busy, but it was important that I set myself up for success. Those long days were worth it and it allowed me to fully commit to my “art vacation”. I would have no excuses. Gardening was allowed, sketching was allowed and reading or watching anything in the evenings had to be art related.

Of course, it didn’t go quite as planned but here’s how it went:

The first day was a slow start. I had sort of hyped myself up for this morning, but painting felt forced. When I woke up, there was nothing left to do but paint and I needed to warm up to it. So I took a step back, had my morning tea and spent some time in the garden looking at plants before getting my paints on paper. After a few hours, I was no longer feeling the pressure and finally started mixing colors and created a palette for the day. I had paint on my brush before noon and I worked on an old painting and started two new underpaintings for the upcoming days. After a few hours I got into a groove and forgot about lunch. Took a late afternoon break for food and got back to painting until dark.

I was more prepared for the second day and was excited to paint when I woke up. I had been planning on painting en plein air the entire weekend, but the wind was intense so I brought plant clippings inside. I worked from different images of plants I photographed in my garden and also made some still life arrangements indoors. In some ways, painting feels like second nature and in other ways I’m not sure what my paintings should look like. I’m fighting back negative thoughts and remind myself that it will take years to develop my way of painting and to continue to have fun. Work thoughts were starting to creep in too and it was harder than expected to not look at my phone, but I stayed off social media and did not do any emails. Overall, the tone of the day was fun and whimsical and I had a lot of fun moving the paint around, allowing my brush strokes to be obvious and not overthinking anything. I let color and intuition inform my decisions.

The third and last day was a bit less productive because I was feeling the time crunch and had to constantly hold back thoughts of what the work week ahead had in store for me. But I rallied through and got a few solid hours of focused painting in. It’s safe to say I became a bit more confident with my strokes as each hour went by. As the time went on I got more and more ideas of things to paint and made a list. I have many art books but not necessarily books on painters, so I went to my online library account to check out books on painters who’s work I’ve been inspired by. M arrived home much earlier than expected so that put a twist on things and I felt a bit rushed to wrap up my day. But, before I called it quits, I created a permanent space dedicated to oils, which is separate from my watercolors and different then my ceramics. With oils, it’s not that simple with tucking things away—I need space, drying time, ventilation and I want to be able to return to it regularly. One of the most critical aspects of this condensed time off is realizing that I need easy access to this and that I must paint a few times a week, no matter what. Painting makes me incredibly happy even if I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.

Details of two different paintings of the same tree // 2023

Although I’m extremely shy about what I’ve painted, I’ve chosen to share what it is I worked on during my mini art vacation. I can’t stress enough that these are works in progress—they are not complete and I hope to build many more layers, or even paint over. I worked on 6 garden studies in 3 days and although I don’t love any of them, I do love small moments and am really pleased with some juicy details. I painted and documented with vibrancy, movement and curiosity and that’s all I can ask of myself even if I’m not confident in this. It’s hard to work on something that will take years to develop, I will need patience to improve and to find my way.

Painting might not be your cup of tea, but I encourage you to incorporate a mini sabbatical of any kind into your life. Time, place, activity, theme to explore can all be adjusted to your wants and needs. We all have dreams and that’s what this is about. I plan on doing this a few times of year because it’s a great reset for my priorities. It felt like a vacation, yet I went no where and spent no money. Three days seemed to be the right amount for this, but I think I could have gotten a lot out of it even with just 24 hours.

Residencies have played a formative role in my life and I’ve been incredibly lucky to have had two wonderful opportunities over the years. Back in 2010 I was an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts. It was a year long studio space but I only had access to it on Sundays. I was living in San Francisco, worked Monday through Fridays and did not have a car to get to the Marin Headlands across the Golden Gate Bridge. At the time, there was a bus route available only on Sundays (line 76) and so that became my weekly art day. For twelve months, I thought of this day as an art residency. The 45 minute time on the bus was part of the experience. Some days I made drawings, some days I read a book and other times I just sat in my space. It was a weird time for me, I was 28 and newly out of grad school, but this time and space gave me the confidence that art should always be part of my life, even after school.

The next and last residency I did was in 2016—a 3 month long storefront stay at Irving Street Projects. Looking back, this period was crucial for my clay work to grow. While I still had a full-time job, I dedicated my mornings to my art. This space was near my home so it was easy for me to spend a few hours investigating and playing with my sculptures before heading into work. I made many installations during this time and was able to showcase it which was also an important step for me.

I share this because since college, I’ve regularly applied to a handful of residencies every year, but have received countless rejections. For perspective, in 15 years, I’ve been awarded 2 residencies and waitlisted for another 2. Lately, I’ve been craving that time to explore and push new work further and have been bummed by the consistent “no’s” I’ve gotten. So that’s all to say create what you need. You don’t need another space or some person/organization to “accept your proposal” to create time for yourself or your project. Of course it can be an amazing gift to receive the opportunity, but changing your mindset and altering your habits at home can be just as creatively beneficial.

Working with clay and selling pottery as a full-time job is a dream come true, but not always as creative as it may seem. That’s where the painting and other side projects come in. I need to investigate that side of me. It’s why I call myself an artist and not a potter. Painting and drawing are a really important part of who I am, even if I don’t share that facet of myself all that much.

For a long time, I assumed I would have a new career every decade. And secretly think that my next “era” would be about painting. Now, I’m not there yet. My skills are nowhere near the caliber it needs to be, but if I want to get better I need to paint often and that’s what I’m trying to do here. If you have a dream project you’ve been holding in your brain, I’d love to hear about it!