In this stage I am laying down more colour and beginning to work on the area in the centre which I am calling ‘The Thicket’ which is dark and chaotic, it pulls me, I will work on it more and share the results with you all.

Here’s the first colour beginning to come in. I’m concentrating on the three close poppy heads as I’m very aware these may be gone tomorrow. A metaphor for the relationship of Medea and her sons, fragile and so beautiful. This is done from life looking out of my sliding sash window at these in the cool of the evening from my living room. I have the paper on a drawing board on my easel. I work stood up.

Here’s the first stage of a large A1 drawing I started on Thursday evening using the poppies in our front garden as a starting point. I made a small sketch on Monday which I will share after I’ve shared the stages of the drawing so far. I’m exploring the theme of family, hence the poppy family idea. I’m thinking of Medea with her boys as a trio and when they were with Jason. There’s a trio of poppy heads in this, very close. I’m also including fleece like spirals in the opposite corner. There’s an area of undergrowth which I’m calling ‘the thicket’ which is also pulling me in the centre. It feels metaphoric, but it is just beginning at the moment. I am staying open to where this work takes me. I’m reading and watching medea related stuff all the time too.

Here’s a little sketchbook study in pencil and oil pastel made on the spot in our local park. I love how the tree is damaged and broken but is still beautiful and growing. A bit of a metaphor for us all maybe. I made a large A1 study from this yesterday which I will share next.

Here’s more tone being laid down in the sky and waves. I’m including some text from a song I’ve been listening to called ‘Lighthouse man’ by The Waifs, it seemed appropriate for Medea in the stage I’m at in her story. I’m not going to depict the actual moment she destroyed her children, but am more interested in her state of mind subsequent to that. As in Euripedes’ play it is not necessary to show the act, it is enough to know she did it.

Here’s the first stage of the drawing where I’m mapping out the main directional lines and some shapes, as well as the beginnings of blocks of tone.