Spring is on the way and all those resolutions made hastily after the excesses of the festive period seem now to be a distant memory, except for - and I am rather pleased about this - a promise I made to myself to spend some time nurturing my own artistic efforts every day, not just sketching and drawing but also in making time to visit exhibitions and to really appreciate what I see. In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, one of Malcolm Gladwell's most quoted hypotheses is that it takes a magic 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to truly master a skill (only 9,950 to go then). It's true that good work takes time, practice and effort but I'd venture that mastering technique alone won't necessarily produce great works of art. Our featured artists have all dedicated time to honing their skills but it is their individual way of reflecting on the world around them, and on those ideas that intrigue them, that makes the work come alive and say something beyond the surface, whether it is through humour, observation or spiritual belief.
Jo Hall