Sketches of Buckingham in the sun – suffering for art?

Sometimes I think I’m a bit “schizophrenic” when it comes to my artwork. (Although, to be precise, that should be a multiple personality disorder rather than schizophrenia – 3 years of Occupational therapy training wasn’t completely wasted! ) By which I mean I have warring urges relating to the type of artistic direction I wish to pursue. I started this blog to promote caricatures – lets call that “Style 1”. I always had the intention of portraiture alongside the caricatures, so we have “Style 2”. Then I started doing landscapes – “Style 3” and still life work “style 4”. Then, I discovered a style of abstract art that suited me, “Style 5” emerged! Finally I enrolled on a life drawing class which led to “Style 6”. Sometimes I desire to work in a realistic style, but it all seems to have been done before. I’m not an artist who enjoys reinventing the wheel! But then I think “I know I can do the realistic work, what’s wrong with that?”.
So it was, last night I was painting abstracts and this morning I found myself sitting under a leafless beech tree. ( I feel I ought to  stress that beech nutshells are NOT comfy to sit on.) My fingers turning a little blue with the cold (NB sunshine does not always equal warmth) sketching one of Buckingham’s historic buildings – I think it’s an old coaching house but I need to investigate further. My result is fine. Better than my shaky sketches of people on the train yesterday, which, in places, resembled seismic readings more than drawings. I now have a dilemma! Abstract or sketch, what is it to be?

A…

…n Abstract (sorry to any Lynn Truss fans out there, your inner pedant must be screaming!)

I think I’m going to call this one “Points of View” I was thinking about perspective and constraints on growth as I was constructing this.