My paintings can be loosely categorised into those which have some kind of message and those which just look pretty {or not, as the case may be!}. I realised this just now when I was thinking about the title of my newest painting, which took a while to come through but I’m pretty sure the wording is right now.

To clarify a bit ~ like any artist, my painting style evolves over time as I learn new techniques and move through different colour, shape and style preferences, as well as different moods and cycles in my life. I always wanted my work to be connected with the healing element of what I do, and for a long time it just didn’t feel like it was; it felt like everything I produced was, although often aesthetically pleasing, a bit ‘hollow’ or without any kind of depth and meaning.

I am not placing a value judgement on either approach; sometimes we just want to rest our eyes somewhere beautiful, and other times we want to be provoked into thinking more deeply or looking for meaning. Art is fantastic for this, like nature.

I suppose, to push that a bit further, anything that comes directly from Source is going to do that, because it reflects back to us both the simplicity and the complexity that we humans are.

More recently though, as I come more and more into alignment with my Self, with who I really am beneath all the conditioning and learned behaviours and limiting beliefs, I feel my paintings shift.

Jeanne always says that when we ask for things to change, not only can we not decide how those changes come, but they never look how we thought they would. We will always get what we ask for, but without releasing all our preconceived ideas about timing or what that will look like, we limit the possibilities. Spirit {God, Creative Source, whatever you want to call it} is infinite; in my experience asking and then letting go is the best way to bring solutions of which I could not previously have conceived.

So I knew I wanted my paintings to be about healing, but I didn’t know how that would work and I couldn’t force it. I held it loosely in the back of my mind as an intention, and just carried on living my life and painting whatever I felt moved to paint.

The work will always be evolving, as I do, but since the beginning of this year I’ve noticed a couple of things. One is that, where before I couldn’t get enough bright colours onto the canvas, and even when I tried to not use them my paintings still ended up like a visual punch in the face {a nice one!}, suddenly I find myself wanting to use pale colours and a lot of white.

So yes, there is the ‘light’ factor ~ lighter colours, a feeling of light and something ethereal. And also images of figures, undefined and nebulous, keep appearing. They are only partially visible, and sometimes if they come out too defined I find I have to knock them back a bit. It makes me laugh really, because it reflects so neatly my own personal journey from ‘old me’ to ‘new me’, and the fact that what used to be invisible to me is starting to emerge from the mists, slowly!

I find that these new paintings are feeding me. I hang them up in my home when they’re finished, or almost finished, and find myself just looking at them for long periods; I don’t know what they are giving me but it’s something profound. I don’t know whether others who look at them will feel this; it doesn’t matter. For now I’m just intrigued as to where the painting is taking me.

What Was Invisible Begins To Be Revealed

‘What Was Invisible Begins To Be Revealed’

mixed media on canvas

60 x 90 x 4cm