10-Minute Color Studies: Painting Joy After a Long Year
One of the things that brings me the most joy as an artist is painting in my sketchbook. It's free, loose, and completely without rules. I can explore any color combination I like and let the paint do what it wants to do.
These quick painting studies take no more than 10 minutes each. No overthinking. No perfection. Just pure creative play.
Inspiration from My Garden
Yellow roses and green ferns in Melbourne garden - inspiration for abstract color study
Today's color study came directly from my garden - yellow roses glowing in the sunshine and the bright lime-green light filtering through the ferns in the back garden. The turquoise is the ocean at the end of my street.
Abstract 10-minute color study in yellow, turquoise and green inspired by garden and roses
I'm not trying to recreate what I see literally - I'm capturing the feeling of those colors, the joy of that light. When I pick up my brush and squeeze paint straight from the tube onto the page, I'm painting my world - the everyday beauty that surrounds me.
Much of my work is inspired by these daily moments: the plants and flowers in my garden, the changing state of the sky, the colors of the ocean just down the road. These aren't grand landscapes or exotic destinations - they're the small, joyful things I notice every day.
That's what feeds my color choices and finds its way into both these quick studies and my larger abstract paintings.
These 10-minute sketches aren't meant to become finished paintings. They're warm-ups, explorations, moments of creative release. They help me stay loose and playful, which feeds into my larger abstract work.
Every Monday in 2026
I'll be sharing these color studies every Monday on the blog and Instagram - a window into my studio practice and creative process. Here's to painting without rules and finding joy in the everyday. Sign up to Art Notes below if you want to follow along as I explore color combinations inspired by my garden, the sea, and the Melbourne sky.