Let's Talk Art Blog

I recently set myself a little challenge – to fill a sketchbook using a limited number of materials and monochromatic palette based on black and white. I wondered how much information I could gather from my environment if I sat still in one place for a time, let my eyes wander and just observe and absorb what was around me. In this case, it was mainly foliage of various different kinds.

Connections are everything....but where do we find them? I've had cause to think a lot about 'connections' in the past few weeks, and in a variety of different contexts. It's a phrase that's been bouncing around the studio as I work away on 3 big paintings, each in different colour palettes, with the knowledge that they'll hang side by side being a pressing concern in the making of the work. I somehow need to 'connect' them all and I can't rely on colour to help me do this

This sketch was prompted by a pile of collage paper scraps and some interesting shapes that I'd cut out from my printmaking dump sheets and then overprinted. I thought I’d see how far I could go with just collage pieces to get started this time, before the urge to add paint got the better of me. It was looking a bit garbled to begin with, but at the start I was really just thinking about covering up the white paper.

At this year's Noosa Open Studios I think the most commonly asked questions were about incorporating pencil and charcoal into mixed media work. So I thought I'd share a quick summary and a demonstration video about how I set these types of marks so that they stay put and don't keep smudging as the work progresses!

Why am I doing a U-turn? I think I may have an answer...... I began working on a new piece during Noosa Open Studios - really so that I could occupy my mind and my hands whist the studio was quiet. In many ways this is the best way for me to start new work - with plenty of distractions and interruptions - I can't get too focused and fussy in those early stages if I can't maintain my train of thought!

With so many interesting snippets of my recent organic print experiments crowding the bench, I couldn't resist taking a sidestep to make a new sketch that incorporated some of them.