Here are some more of the little acrylic and pencil studies on green paper from around my house. I seem to be feeling very nostalgic about it even though I’m living here, not sure what all that is about. Maybe I sense an impermanence or something. I made one of the lightpull in our bathroom bought for me by my mum. It’s really heavy made of green metal. I’m letting the things in our house tell me if they want to be painted and drawn. There’s one of the bed and of our backyard with the ferns and pots. This is all leading somewhere, maybe another big painting. Our stairs have a special significance for me linking to family, could become a major motif. I will know when it tells me! Watch this space and click images to enlarge to see marks and colours in more detail folks.

Here are the 4 explorations of my house together on the green paper. I found the size interesting as it is so much smaller than I am used to. I went for it though! Click to enlarge for marks as usual.

Here are two more little studies made on the glorious green handmade paper that I bought at Saltaire Mill the other week. I’m still reading Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard and will be filling the paper I bought in response to some of these ideas about the places we live or have lived and what they mean to us. I kind of knew I wanted to do a study of my big blue mug even before I painted it. That’s often how it goes with me, not sure why. I have loads more ideas of what to do will just see where it takes me. Don’t forget to click to enlarge to see the marks more clearly.

I made this piece on some wonderful handmade paper that I bought at Saltaire mill last Friday when I went to see the Hockney show there. His use of colour resonates long after the visit. I’ve been reading Gaston Bachelard Poetics of Space, in relation to my ‘nest’ investigations for the proposed collaborative show with Neoartists based on the theme ‘Self and Other’. His thoughts on the nature of the houses we live in or have lived in resonate on so many levels. I fell for our current house because of the front door. Here is a sketch I made today. I hope to explore the house though a series of little drawings and paintings and see where it takes me. Am including some shots of the Hockney visit too. Also,  I’ve just completed a study in the same media of orchids and irises on our window-ledge. I’ll keep exploring the house nest with studies like these all week and see what develops. I have lots of paper so watch this space! Don’t forget to click to enlarge to see marks and colour more clearly.

I completed this large study as a preparatory piece for a large oil that I am underway with at the moment as part of a series of paintings for the ‘Self and Other’ proposed show at Neoartists Bolton in 2018.Still waiting for the response of the committee! The inspiration for this one came from a sketch that I made at the Jardin Botanique in Brussels which I am also sharing on this blog. It was of a sculpture of a bird of prey consuming whatever it had caught. The bronze sculpture spoke to me instantly that it wanted to be drawn as I explored the gardens. Don’t forget to click to enlarge the image to see the marks more clearly. Oilbars are my new thing and I’m loving the textures that are possible to achieve with them. I also use a soft pencil to bring in the line aspect of the study, I don’t know if I’ll include this in the painting, I’m undecided.

It has taken me quite a while to be able to draw after the events in Brussels of 22nd March. I had visited that fair city very recently and enjoyed drawing there and taking photographs as I have shared on this blog. I am still processing everything that has happened and will be for some time as will so many others. My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims always. I could only make a drawing on the Good Friday of that week and am sharing it here. I called it ‘Circle of Thorns’. I made it using oilbars and graphite. It came from a sketch done on the spot of an arrangement of twigs from my customary walk in the park in Clitheroe. The whole week reminded me of how I felt on that traumatic week when Derrick Bird shot so many people in Eskdale in June 2010. I was staying in that beautiful valley on a retreat. We were in our little bubble responding to nature when it happened. I was at St.Bees beach trying to draw but couldn’t ,then helicopters hovered over me looking for him I learned later. Two women cowered by the promenade and told us what was unfolding. I couldn’t respond artistically to the beach of my homevillage that day even before I knew the reality. We sense on some level the energies around us. It has been the same with Brussels. Here are the drawings Click to enlarge.

Here are some more images from Brussels, enjoy!

Got back last Monday after a visit to Brussels and managed to get a day drawing and photographing round the city. The Jardin Botanique gave me some great ideas for a new painting in my series for the ‘Self and Other’ theme for the Neoartists show that I am on with making a proposal for. Not ready to share here until I’ve made it. Got to guard the gold as it were. Can share some of the shots I took, and beermat sketches. Don’t forget to click to enlarge. Need to do some drawing next as well. I’ve been writing and reading for my Artshealth project on puppetry which has taken me away from making art. Need to remedy that! Anyway here are some shots.

I completed this piece last Wednesday the 10th February 2016. It is always very difficult for me to know when I need to stop, but am generally stopping sooner than I used to so as not to overegg the pudding as it were. I used paper masks to go over the painting of the central section and a large brush that I bought at the local hardware shop. Thin glazes of colour allowed motifs underneath to show through. I also scratched through the paint before it dried as I often do. The collage element are frayed canvas from the edge of an old picture to bring in the strips of darker tone equivalent to the paper collage on the prep drawing that I have shared on this blog. Finally I decided that some dark lines were needed so I stretched some string over the canvas and painted it and pulled it like an elastic band and it landed on the canvas in these strong accidental lines. I used indian ink to paint the string. I liked the way it touched some parts and not others so that it was a mix of the accidental and deliberate. That’s it really. I have no more to say on this one. Do click images to enlarge to see the marks and layers more clearly. I’m moving on even as I finish this and plan to buy a large A1 piece of paper to start a new cycle on this afternoon. On and on I go!

I had thought that I had finished the watercolour study that I have recently shared on this blog. However, on reflection and having spent quite a while just looking at it ( I often do this) I decided to paint some small pieces of watercolour paper in darker tones and tear them to go on top of my picture. I think I was mentally referring back to the bars on the study of our fire that I have also recently shared on this blog. I also made more marks with fan brushes, ink and soft pastels until I felt I had done. I’m using this to refer to for a large oil painting on canvas that I have started to the same scale as my previous ‘Solitary Figure’ paintings that I am gathering with a view to a collaborative show based on the theme ‘Self and Other’. The current painting will also go into this collection if it works! I made some progress with it yesterday but am not quite ready to share yet. Watch this space! My poet friends from Artipeeps say they don’t understand me sharing process work as it goes along. I think drawings are different though as they can stand alone as individual pieces of artwork. Jason from Neoartists said to share everything! I am being guided by my instinct on this and share when I feel ready. Anyway, here are the collage additions, enough talk! Click to enlarge as usual.