This is a sketch I made on the spot at York Minster on a glorious Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago. I was amazed I actually managed to get a day over there. May is ridiculously busy with exhibitions and assessing of them at school, so to actually do some art for myself is an achievement. It was one of those perfect days. I’d just had a lovely time at the gallery According To Mcgee meeting the owners, Greg and Ails, and the artist Elaine Thomas who was showing there. My son has commissioned a painting of the Minster as a wedding gift for a friend as they went to York Uni. Hence me ending up drawing it. People were so calm, there was a keyboard player keeping me company. I set myself up on a stone memorial in the shadows looking towards the Minster in full sunlight. I lost track of time as I laid down marks and colour in pencil and oil pastel. I must have been there two hours. I took photos too, but it is the drawing always the drawing that I use when painting and my memory. Drawing fixes the experience in my memory much more completely. The girl in the red trousers, the man in the striped shirt. They all come back to me as I write this to you.

I worked on this on Saturday adding lighter tones to the border. The painting is nearing completion. This is the stage where I can mess up very easily, or take it in an exciting new direction. Am letting the piece speak back to me where it wants to go. Watch this space. It is the final outcome of a series of drawings in both oil-pastel and soft pencil made directly from the motif.

Here are some details from an oil painting I am making currently from my Raggedy Plant oil pastel study. I’m enjoying the colour and movement within the piece and seeing where it all takes me. Watch this space! Note, the sections are jumbled up here!

Here’s the link to the page on Artipeeps website about the Anxiety and Release collaboration that I have been working on with the Canadian poet Rod Kok. It been a most unusual journey, and I’m still processing where I’m at with it all. Being primarily a painter and visual artist I find it difficult to put motivation into words, and sometimes think you shouldn’t try as responding visually is a language in itself. All art critics and historians should try to make art too I think! Anyway, here’s the link. I probably will say more about it all, but you can read about the development of my painting Spring Park Bench on this blog. http://artipeeps.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/off-my-feet-by-rod-kok-and-spring-park-bench-by-heather-burns-the-anxietyrelease-collaboration-2/

This was the original drawing that I took the cropped section from for the previous post. I always draw from life and was surprised that it was the stalk that interested me visually and not the large shiny leaves of this plant. I have to be aware and stay open to where the muse takes me, never force, but reveal. I am led by my drawing.

This is the second large study that I made. It came from an abstracted section of the raggedy plant stalk that I made a drawing of earlier this year. This feels much more like it. I have chosen the motif and subject myself, so this fits with my way of working. Having just completed another collaborative project it seems necessary to come back into myself and explore some of my own choices again. I find I need both to grow!

Here’s and oil-pastel study I made last week as a further exploration trying to uncover and decide what my next painting will be. I had a feeling I’d said all I wanted to say about the park though, and I was right. This doesn’t feel to be the one I’ll develop into a painting this holiday, maybe at some later date, we’ll see.

Here’s some of the painting I did on Monday on the piece for the Anxiety and Release collaboration for Artipeeps arts group from Cambridge. The final painting will be published on their website on 15th April along with the poet’s work that forms the other half of this creative venture. I’ve been feeling quite poorly this week with a kidney infection so wasn’t at my best when painting. I gave myself permission to do just a little. That worked well. I only painted for about half an hour but really enjoyed what I did. It must never become a chore. We all tend to push ourselves out of some misguided work ethic and don’t do our best stuff then. If we acknowledge when we don’t feel on top form, honour our bodies and our time we can do something even though it may not be as much as we’d hoped. We need to learn to accept ourselves just as we are at any given moment and know that we are doing our best. This painting is teaching me so much in so many ways. I loved the little bush that you can see in the detail. The way the leaves flickered in the spring breeze catching the light. So fragile. It always surprises me what takes my interest. Nature teaches us so much when we slow down enough to hear, see and feel.

Here’s a detail of my current painting for the Anxiety and Release collaboration for Artipeeps artists’ group from Cambridge. I’m responding to a poem by a poet from Canada called Rod Kok who  I’ve been teamed up with. He’s written a poem responding to ‘anxiety’, and I’m interpreting the ‘release’ part. It comes out of my Spring Park Bench explorations that I’ve been sharing on this blog. I’ve done some more painting on it today. The light was wonderful and  I’m really getting into it. I don’t want to give away too much just yet. The whole thing will be published on April 15th by Artipeeps on their website, so you’ll see the poem and the painting together. I’m still in the middle of it. I’ve a feeling that I’ll be making another painting to go with this one, we’ll see. I’m revelling in the lush oil colour on the canvas. Listening to The Who Quadrophenia in case you’re interested whilst I work.