I’ve made no secret of the tough year I’ve had. But one aspect I haven’t spoken much about is resistance. Resistance is all the stuff that gets in the way of doing the thing, whatever that thing may be, that brings you whichever flavour of satisfaction you most desire. For me, I was wrestling with the content of my paintings. I was spending far too much time worrying about the ‘NZ Art World’ and how I might fit in, and not enough time on what it is I really love to paint. The resistance came in many forms; procrastination, dabbling in various forms of painting content, even veering off into part time work. The breakthrough happened when I finally put down the concerns that my work wasn’t political enough and dived headlong into the feminine, romantic and unapologetically beautiful. This is the place and the people I love to paint. I’ve been waking up excited to get into the studio again. And I go to bed feeling like I gave those paintings my all. This is the best I can do today. And I’m happy with that because I know I’ll be even better tomorrow. Resistance beaten, satisfaction gained.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I appreciate all of you so much.

Meredith x

This new body of work will open at my gallery in Foxton as part of the Manawatu Art Trail in October. For more info click here.