How do you decide what to paint?

Good question.

I found a smashing website called Painters Online. Here's the link: -
Painters Online
Now, this is quite open and honest about the fact that it belongs to The Artist - and - Leisure Painter - magazines, but they don't ram it down your throat and there's no hard sell. If you join, then you can post pictures of your work into an online gallery. People can comment on your work if they wish. It's a little intimidating at first because the standard of other people's work is so high, but then this was the same mental hurdle I'd had to get over when I joined the Artists' Group, only on a larger scale. I think that when I realised that it isn't a competition, and the point is to try to be as good as you can without worrying about how you compare to other people's work it was a very liberating moment. I mean, there's nothing wrong if you only want to paint for yourself, and you get the pleasure from making your paintings, and then looking at them yourself afterwards. But personally I want to know what other people think. I want fresh pairs of eyes on them, even if the feedback isn't great.

Apart from posting your own work, looking at other artists' work can give you ideas for paintings. I'm not talking about plagiarism. Let me give you an example. The closest cities to Port Talbot, where I live, are Swansea and Cardiff. I searched the gallery for any paintings of either city. One of the paintings which came up was a beautiful painting of an old fashioned sales kiosk in Cardiff. Now, I love this sort of Victorian/Edwardian thing. I googled around the net for ideas, and the result , eventually, was this painting: -

Ice Cream Kiosk - Blackpool Pier

Though I say it as shouldn't, I really like this painting. I think that if you compare it to my first couple of paintings you can see the improvement. The draughtsmanship is not bad at all. I used all I'd learned from my beach paintings. The real improvement though is in the sky. I like this so much more than the rather weak and wishy washy skies of my earlier paintings, and I think that I even managed to pull off a few clouds. I think that the pier planking is effective, as is the glass, with the shadowy figure behind it. 

I liked this so much I framed it, and it's in my den. I also encouraged me to think of a series of booths and boxes paintings. At time of writing I haven't tried to sell it, but if you are interested, then email me at londinius@yahoo.co.uk

Update - This painting has since been sold