‘I paint, just because I love it’

In most artists’ lives there comes a time when painter’s block becomes a massive challenge. way to break through this barrier, succeeding in an entirely unexpected way. spoke to a KZN

HEIDI Shedlock’s love affair with art and painting began further back than she can remember. “Art had always been as much part of me as breathing. I saw everything around me as a source of creative expression. Whether it was drawing, painting or any other medium, I felt inspired to produce something artistically worthwhile.”

It was a creative drive that not only attracted her to teaching art in a number of local Kwazulunatal schools during the early part of her career, but later also brought her a number of big commissions and invitations to exhibit her work.

“For me exhibiting my work in galleries and producing art, be it flowers, portraits and working in oils acrylics or inks for exhibitions was second nature. I didn’t think twice about. It was my career, so much a part of my every day existence. That’s what I did. My family, my husband, my children accepted that. My studio at home was where it all happened.”

That is until one day when inspiration seemed by some “weird force beyond my control” to dry up.

“I was working on a commissioned piece for one of my clients, when I started to have doubts about my ability and what I was doing, almost like stage fright. My inner critic was telling me that I couldn’t do this anymore. The feeling of expectation and excitement about what I was doing, suddenly left me. It was like a lifelong friend had literally walked away for no apparent reason.”

With self-doubt at the forefront, her confidence, she says, hit rock bottom.

“I managed to finish the piece, but knew that I needed to take stock of myself. Whatever worked for me, the way I approached my work before wasn’t happening any longer.”

With that stark realisation, Heidi decided to take time off from her full time commission and exhibition work.

“Instead I started doing little paintings just for myself, arbitrary paint doodling I suppose. I remember looking down at my flipflop – it happened to be Flip Flop Friday – so I painted that. Then I painted just for fun a half-eaten cup cake followed by an old oil paint tube, anything that caught my eye. It was my daily therapy, just me, my eye looking at some arbitrary object and some paint.”

She her cousin and best friend in Chicago via the internet about her “art drought”, explaining it was her way of trying to come to terms with a “bad dose” of artists’ block.

Little did she realise that her confidante in the US had created a special painting in the Post blog using Shedlock’s daily introspective postcard size paintings, each one accompanied by some heartfelt comments.

Before long the blog had gone viral and people from around the globe had started to enquire about Shedlock and her tiny daily paintings.

“I don’t think you could ever start off thinking that this was would be a business opportunity. But to my amazement I was getting offers to buy my little paintings