My self imposed time out is paying off so far, although not in the way I’d anticipated. {I haven’t been naughty, I just needed a bit of a break. 😉 } I’ve made a good start on Abstractify, enjoyed an onslaught of ideas which are all carefully noted on small pieces of paper spread tidily around the house, am reading a heap of books and have a new painting to share!

I don’t seem to have photographed it from the beginning, but here is the process from some time early on. You can see I used a very crappy printout of a photo I took from a trip to the woods a few weeks ago as my reference. Not that inspiring in and of itself, it was just a guide for lights and darks, and for borrowing some composition. I also painted over a very old canvas, which helps give it more depth.

All my favourite colours. 🙂 Irrespective of subject, it just doesn’t feel right to paint without copious amounts of blues, turquoise and aquas, plus Naples Yellow, fluorescent pink, white gesso, and in this case some orange and bright yellow that mostly got covered up.

Lots of fun for most of of it, playing with marks and keeping things loose. Then a long wrestling match with the left hand side which just would not come together, and trying to get the central triangle to feel right. I wanted to make sure all the negative spaces were interesting. There was much squinting and turning the canvas and moving further away.

I repainted those left hand areas a LOT of times, while trying to not let them get too far from the right hand side which was working really well with very little work. I don’t mind how many layers a painting has, but it’s always a danger when you start overworking one section and forgetting that the rest might look a bit different, or have a different energy that then doesn’t match.

For a long time it felt too bitty, but eventually I reached a point that felt done. Of course every time I look at it my eye snags on something, but I don’t want to fuss with it any more. I’m always aiming for loose and although this isn’t my loosest ever, I’m happy with it.

Terra Incognita

40 x 40cm

Available in the shop