Aisling Drennan is an award-winning abstract artist with a London, UK-based art studio.
Please get in touch to book a studio visit.
There’s a moment in every painting where you step back, breathe, and ask: “Has it landed yet?” Recently, after weeks of returning to a canvas, I finally reached that moment of quiet satisfaction. It wasn’t instantaneous—it was careful and intentional, a dance between adjustment, reflection, and heart.
The process (view below) felt like a conversation with the painting itself: a few rounds of tweaks here, a thoughtful pause there, and plenty of time spent simply looking.
Sometimes I adjust a brushstroke and immediately feel relief. Other times I walk away for an hour—or a day—returning with fresh eyes and a surprising new choice. This back‑and‑forth rhythm is something I’ve written about before in my post “When Flower Kites Take Flight”, where I explore how time itself becomes a tool in the creative process.
Many artists (and non‑artists!) ask me: Doesn’t reworking feel like failure? The short answer: never.
Revision isn’t erasing—it’s learning the language of the piece. It’s like working with clay: sometimes you remove material before you add what the piece has been waiting for. As the Courtauld Institute of Art writes in their studies on artistic process, “Good art reflects as much what is removed as what is retained.”
I knew this painting was done not because every detail was ‘sitting correctly’, but because it felt cohesive and alive. There was rhythm, intention, and balance- key point I strive for with each painting.
Tate Modern – Ways of Seeing — an exploration of visual interpretation.
The National Gallery – How Paintings Communicate — insight on visual dialogue in art.
To fellow creatives, thanks for reading, Aisling
Aisling Drennan is an award-winning abstract artist with a London, UK-based art studio.
Please get in touch to book a studio visit.