Blog

I'm not a hoarder exactly, but I do confess to being a saver! Whilst tidying up the studio as my latest series nears completion, I realised I had so many interesting little snippets of paper leftover. I just can't bear to throw these little moments in time away so I sorted them out into different colours and wondered what I could do with them. This little sketch was really just a distraction from my housekeeping!

As the season is changing, so are things in the studio, with my latest body of work nearing completion. It will soon be time to plant the seeds of some new ideas. It must be all the rain....

I was recently invited, by my artist friend Dale Leach and the Tinbeerwah Art Group in the Noosa Hinterland, to deliver a print and collage workshop to current members. Packing the car with all my supplies left me without doubt about being a travelling circus! I had to set the stage for what was to come, so off I went armed with artwork, sketchbooks, works-in-progress, paints, papers, boxes of stencils and textures, printing plates and rollers.....

My paintings always reach a point where I need to let them sit for a while. I prop them up on the easel or hang them on the wall and distance myself from the making of them and reduce my interaction with them so that in effect I become nothing more than a passerby. It's in these moments that my focus becomes less intense and I can find myself feeling a bit adrift, no longer anchored physically and cognitively by that artwork.

Working with limited colours and materials can give us a new creative freedom to explore, experiment, test and try things out. As creatives, I think we have a natural propensity for problem solving and finding solutions is something we do with every brushstroke or pencil mark. We are always moving our work forward with the ultimate aim of finding a satisfactory resolution of some kind.

It's a similar story with all of my paintings - from the chaotic beginnings to the final resolution, the journey is guided only by what emerges autonomously and my sense of awareness of what is unfolding in front of me.