I am a multimedia artist mostly using the outside world as my main subject. This includes landscapes, gardens, seaside and roads, and even a journey crossing the channel in a storm.
I spend a lot of time in my garden, which I started 4 years ago, planning, working, thinking, adjusting and experimenting. Watching colour combinations change throughout the year. This feeds into my work and in a way is exactly the same, starting, watching, experimenting, changing and waiting to see what might happen next.
Dividing time between painting and the garden is exciting and challenging as both need and ask for attention (along with the rest of life). One of the ways I keep reasonably sane is to remind myself this is my way of playing, maybe serious playing, but in the end about enjoyment and exploration.
Working alongside other artists is also important for me from time to time and is an exciting experience. I might try a colour combination inspired by another artist in the group or steal a mark. Also very interesting seeing others view of the world through their work. And it’s fun.
One of the most challenging things for me, and no doubt other artists, is to see one’s own work and one of the ways I have of doing this is to hide work away for a day, a week, maybe a year or years, and see what the elves have done to it. Something I didn’t think worked then does, or the other way around. A bit like waiting to see what happens in the garden.
My method, if you could call it a method, is always to start drawing, which I love to do, often combined with collage. I then might start a concertina sketch book, taking inspiration from the studies. This can then give lots of compositions that I might not see from the original studies. I then will paint in series, many pieces of work from one that subject.
