It's all part of the process.
Process; understanding the complexities
Now that the schools are back I am now moving forward with new work and new ideas. Ideas that have been taking their time to form since my show in Edinburgh. I fully admit to have been a little burnt out in the weeks after my exhibition; a year of intense creativity. It’s a feeling that can slowly creep up on you, focus dips yet the will is still there. Still in the zone of feeling you need to work but the hand and mind not connecting. My work ethic since leaving college was always to show up in the studio despite sometimes not feeling completely present, this is often where discoveries are made pushing through and bypassing the blip. So this time I decided to simply pick up a pencil and draw. No big paintings to battle with therefore preserving the energy I had remaining. I love using sketchbooks as they take all the pressure off, marks are made without judgement and without the need to take them any further. They are simply what they are and no more and no less. I also set myself a small challenge of making two loose leaf drawings a day. These have really started to excite me since I see them as the essential yet skeletal initial reactions to my wanderings in the landscape. As many of you may know my process has always involved exploration, from firstly being in the land but also through the reading, research and then to the painting medium I use. In the past I admit to having been a little frustrated with myself one day using watercolour, the next gouache, then pencil, pastel, oil so on and so forth. Chopping and changing with each new idea and mood. It often feels I am juggling many ideas at once with little focus. This is simply how my work evolves; it is the layering of multiple ideas, moments, marks, thoughts, moods, a passage of music and painterly techniques that brings about my finished paintings. To add to this complexity I have also been ‘playing’ with film, initially as a diversion from paint, but by doing so it has created a means for me to show and understand my process. Films of water layered over painted marks, or films of me drawing layered over the gentle movement of shifting clouds. Perhaps these are a digital version of a sketchbook, or simply another way for me to create. It’s all part of the process. The element that brings all these disparate ideas and methods together is ‘time.’ The time it takes to process experiences and thoughts, and for these to slowly and sometimes disparately and abstractly find their way into my work. These morph and change into sometimes more direct painting and others more layered and complex imagery. Either way I am pleased to be seeing and making again. My work is string of moments, each has it’s value: clouds moving across the sky, wind rippling the silvered water, a sentence remembered. Inspiration is everywhere and painting serves as a way of making sense of these disparate observations.
A string of moments
Shortlisted for The Castlegate Prize
Vision
Whilst buried neck deep in paint last week my phone pinged, I sighed and decided to ignore the message and continued to concentrate on the piece I was working on. Later when my hands were cleaner and my head a little freer I checked my e-mails to find a wonderful message saying my painting Vision had been shortlisted. Such exciting news!! Weeks before I had entered the 1 metre square painting on the very last day of the entry deadline, Valentines day as it happens. I had been swithering for a while about the painting, for me it is a special one, I didn’t quite know which forthcoming show it would feature in until I realised it was perfect for the Castlegate Art Prize. A newly launched competition which supports the mental health charity Young Minds by donating the entry fee to the charity. A very worthy cause. So many prizes and open exhibitions now a days charge a fee for a digital entry and pocket the money. I immediately warmed to this new approach. The prize asked for a painting inspired by the word ‘Hope’. As many of you may know my work circumnavigates many emotions, the landscape acts as a foil by which these emotions are conveyed. The initial concept of ‘Vision’ was to create a calm and uplifting sense of light. Winter can send many personalities of weather our way but occasionally in-between the storms and high winds there are those perfect moments where the air rests and rare warm light breaks through. We naturally stop and take a breath in these moments and our psyche reminds us spring isn’t too far away; Hope. I will keep my fingers tightly crossed over the next few weeks in hope that Vision makes the final cut, an exhibition of works by the finalists and perhaps I dare to even wonder if the painting will even secure the big prize? I will keep you posted as soon as I hear any news.
Vision • Oil on Board • 100cmx100cm
New Work Available
My latest body of work is now online and available to purchase. Take a look on the Portfolio page 2018. I am happy to chat through any of the work and studio visits are always welcome if you can’t make up your mind. Many of the pieces will be shown in Tatha Gallery in the forthcoming Winter Exhibition ‘Even More Alchemy’ Preview 10th November 2-4pm and runs until 24th December