Blog

Blurred foreground portrait of Alex Loveless in the studio, with paintings and works in progress on the wall behind him.

Recent writing from the studio, the archive, and the general mess of making things.

  • Oil Paint Anxiety

    A studio note about returning to oil paint, technique anxiety, and knowing enough rules without letting them stop the work.

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  • Sharing Without Turning It Into a Performance

    Finding a way to show the work without turning art into a glossy artist-brand performance.

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  • Painting With Aphantasia

    How having no reliable mind’s eye shapes reference-led painting, colour, and useful chaos.

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  • I Started Painting Landscapes By Accident

    A studio note about recent landscapes emerging from abstract and textured work, and following the accident when the marks start working.

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  • The Monsters Never Really Went Away

    Childhood monsters, comics, pulp covers, fantasy art, and the traces they leave in later work.

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  • I Never Really Thought of Myself as an Artist

    On childhood drawing, monsters, comics, and the slow process of accepting the word artist.

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  • I Cannot Control What People Feel

    On viewer response, meaning, intensity, and letting people bring their own stories to the work.

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  • Are you the hero of my story?

    Do you want a sense of what itโ€™s like to be a trying-not-to-starve artist? Well thatโ€™s pretty easy to summarise: you spend most of your allocated art time on thinking about or executing actions and strategies for promoting yourself. Sometimes you snatch a bit of time to make art. But even in those cherished moments…

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  • Peopled out but not down

    People exhaust me. They do. I donโ€™t mean that in a mean spirited or misanthropic way, although some people are genuinely exhausting. But Iโ€™m referring to people in general. Being autistic, processing and reciprocating human interactions takes a lot more processing power than for non-autistics. That doesnโ€™t mean that I donโ€™t like being around people,…

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  • Block Party – Why it’s OK to get stuck once in a while

    Iโ€™m a strange beast in that I hate deadlines but I also need them. I hate being constrained, but I work best when I have a clear goal. I love to explore, but get twitchy when I donโ€™t know where Iโ€™m going. I love to start things but sometimes, just sometimes, I canโ€™t. So I…

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