painting

I always joked that I used paint but I wasn’t a painter and to some extent that was true however over the last 18 months or so I’ve been drawn to it more and more. My first commission was at age 11 by a classmate for a girl in an ‘itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka do bikini’ however there was no payment and my first memory was yellow and blue creating magic in front on my 5 year old eyes.

I guess since childhood I’ve flirted with painting. My first course was with The Learning Connexion about 30-odd years ago and then again about 20 years ago with the school art teacher who held some classes for friends in her garage . . . I still have that work on my wall. In 2015 a weekend with Gill Allen and then a course with her a couple of years later reawakened my interest.

I was always more interested in making things Though, the physicality, exploring materials, and then using my skills to explore concepts but now I guess the material I’m exploring is paint and the physicality of applying it is what appeals. It will take time, it will not replace making, however it will have its season.

An exploration in colour and texture on a 30 x 30 cms panel.

Detail.

A delicious detail!

Sometimes I find gems.

Yet to be finished . . . or maybe it is.

Another 30 x 30 cms panel . . . although this was a step along the way, and I almost fell in love as it was but it’s received another layer of exploration.

Had it been this size . . . .

Now all I need to do is continue with the experimenting, the exploring, and then work out how to scale it up without the aide of an app on my iPad! I’m aiming for bigger surfaces, bigger tools . . . because I have big ideas.