Let's Talk Art Blog

I needed to work with warm colours today, it's a bit chilly here in Queensland at the moment! I chose a range of analogous colours from yellow-orange-red to get me started. I also happened upon a little box of interesting collage snippings that I thought I'd incorporate - hence the bubbles. I'm not sure where the inner circles ended up but I love the little windows these 'leftovers' create.

As I've been working on my new paintings, one of them began to wander off into the land of pinks and greens, which isn't a colour combination I've really used before. So, I thought I'd have a quick play around with doing a sketch in muted colours to see what would happen and if I was struck by any kind of inspiration!

I’ve been meaning to try beginning with a black background to see what difference that makes to the final piece and I had a 30 x 30 cm board to experiment with, just lying around so I thought I’d give it a go whilst I still had the blues and ranges on my palette. The black underneath created unexpected little pockets of deep 'space' which were intriguing. I’m not sure I could have achieved these without the black under painting.

Making art can be a risky business, but what does 'creative risk' look and feel like? Art making risks are unique to the individual. What doesn't feel risky for you in your arts practice, could feel very risky for me and vice versa. For me, the moment of deciding to take a risk arrives quite suddenly and without any preamble, or instructions! It's fleeting but immediate and is filled with a sense of urgency to either grasp the moment and go all-in, or to let it slide and fa

It seems I never begin a new work the same way twice! But I thought I'd share the beginnings of one of my latest pieces as I start with collage....

I've been thinking recently about whether seeing an evolution in my arts practice is a positive or a negative and all of a sudden I seem to have had a cascade of thoughts on the subject which I thought I'd share with you!