Mmmm, what to write?
I could start at the beginning……….

Best to start with the art.

I’ve been making art of one sort or another all my life. From drawing to photography, painting to crochet, abstracts to representational work.

I keep coming back to abstracts though, both in my photography (which I still do on occasion) and now in my painting.

Most of my paintings take a long time, a few days to weeks, depending on how quickly they resolve.

I start with layers, mixing different colours (trying to avoid making mud as I add paint before the layers are dry!), and then making marks in the paint with various tools.

Then there are more layers, more mark making, more layers and so on.

I usually scrape paint off too, using scalpel blades mostly, sometimes spraying the paint with water to soften it up.

I just keep going until I am happy!

Detail from Desert meets Mountain

There is rarely a specific direction in my work, it is intuitive and evolves over time.

I frequently splash another layer of paint on something that I thought was nearly finished, but it didn’t inspire, so I kept going.

The naming of the work can sometimes take a while, coming to me either as I am creating or later when I’m contemplating, although I know not everyone sees what I see!

Most of my art is based on my natural surroundings, maybe because I spent many years taking photos in the English countryside and on the coast.

I was always looking for abstracts though and many of my photos reflect this.

Above is a photograph I took of rock formations in a cliff in North Cornwall
Just noticed the colours between the art & photo are similar!

I am now starting a new chapter in my artist life, going full time. It has it’s challenges but I’m excited about the future.
I would like to thank Louise Fletcher for her course Find Your Joy which inspired me in the autumn of 2023 to get back to painting. It truly changed my life!

Thank you for reading