I have been plonking myself in the studio for about 3-4 hours every day over the last few weeks and so have felt really blissful, creating like anything requires determination, endurance and well quite honestly putting the hours in to truly make progress. I have also realised how crucial drawing & painting is to me as far as maintaining a sense of peace & hope, I just don’t quite think I had realised how not creating had affected me. I have been drawing since a little girl & art in all forms is just so very crucial to the world in so many ways especially in the current political climate.
I am really happy with the bigger work on paper that I have made, something that I just wouldn’t have even embarked on over the last few years due to limited time, it is strange how when I felt the minutes that I could put in meant I zoomed down to just small works that I knew could be left for a while to come back to, the layering process helps with that as I guess is the way of life too, the days add texture, nuances and shifts & new experiences to process or just float over. Whilst I write I wonder if the flowing ribbons, the fluidity I try to create has something to do with the timescales, marks & thoughts flow in & out & through or bounce off. The intimacy of making art blending with those concentrated moments in the studio.
The bigger painting, paper stretched on board felt more freeing, more connection with the physical space. Reflections of the beautiful bright autumn landscape whilst drawing and making shapes drew me back to the days when I made much bigger drawings & canvases, seascapes, the size has more depth but I realise that I have almost started where I left off with over a 15 year gap. Those organic abstract marks are there as a part of me, the landscape, nature itself, already concrete and I am trying to fathom, draw them out of me, of what I see.
New works I have added to my website, there are two smaller series of four abstract pieces each, studies of a painting I made in September based on the foliage of an abundant almond tree outside the studio in the late summer. A reflection of the beautiful botanical landscape. These are all painted on Saunders Waterford 300gm 100% cotton rag NOT surface watercolour paper.
Here’s to more long stretches and the courage to create no matter what.
