ABSTRACTS APPRECIATED

Five of my large scale abstracts have been bought by a solicitors - Lyons Bowe, who have just opened up a new office in Shepton.  They bought one for their reception area, two for their meeting room and two for their upstairs office!

I had them framed by a local company - Great Ostry Framing.  Will and Cathy did a great job - a simple black wooden frame and a white mount complemented the paintings perfectly.  It is very satisfying to see my work framed and being appreciated...

'HIDDEN MEMORIES'

'Hidden Memories' (90cms x 90cms), collage and mixed media on canvas.

I have just finished this large sale commission.  It is to complement another artwork I did 10 years ago, as it is to go on an adjacent wall.  Below is some of the stages it went through.  It is a mixture of collage and mixed media, mainly acrylic and oil pastels.  The papers with text, that I added in a crucifix shape, are photocopies of personal papers supplied by my customer.  Although at the end of the day only the odd word shows through they provide depth and meaning to the picture.  That is why I have called it 'Hidden Memories'...

'KISSES SENT'

It is always great to see one of your paintings, framed and up in someone's home!  This is one of the large scale black and white abstracts I did when participating on an on-line course tutored by Jane Davies.  It was done on A1 paper and consisted of many layers of acrylic paint applied in a variety of ways.  It is called 'Kisses Sent' and I sent it to near London in a cardboard postal tube!

I was emailed the photograph - I don't remember any pink being in the pic - must be a reflection!  Anyway, it is now framed, hanging in a stairwell of a maisonette, and loved by the home owners...

BLANK CANVAS

Normally when I start on a picture, I have some idea of the direction it is going to take.  I have usually researched the subject or explored the idea in a sketch book, have done thumb nail sketches of the composition and have words in my head relating to the piece.  But with this large canvas, I just started with an open mind and no preconceived idea, except that I wanted it to be completely abstract and colourful.  Well, as you can see, that didn't quite work out!

'All I want to do is dream...' -  mixed media on canvas (76cms x102cms)

I started by putting texture onto the background with modelling paste and imprinted it with various  materials, such as bubblewrap.  After it had dried, I added paints and inks directly to the surface, moving them around with an old credit card and then let the canvas speak to me.  There seemed to be a space for a circle which I cut from sheet music and added. The colours had become dark and moody so from then on my good attentions of it being abstract disappeared and it became a moonscape.  Moons to me mean dreams and romance, and hence the words.  The moon was painted in a soft gold metallic paint taking care that the music still showed through. To give it a further dimension, I added foliage to the foreground using stamping methods and a liner brush, usually used for painting lines on furniture.

SIZE MATTERS

Some years ago I belonged to an exhibiting textile group and we were asked to create work for an exhibition at Exeter Museum called 'Size Matters'. I wanted to do something really big, but boring practicalities, such as transportation, size of studio etc. had to be considered.  My solution was to do one picture on 9 canvases (51cms x 62cms).

'Light the Fire Within' - 160cm x 192cm

I started with a small paper and string collage - playing around with stripes and ancient pot shapes.  This was scaled up to become large and then divided  into 9 panels.  A variety of materials were used including paper, fabric, rope, paint and gold leaf.  Some of the outlines were deliberately not lined up perfectly with the next panel to give a disjointed look.  The work can be broken up as each panel works as an abstract in its own right.

The work was called 'Light the Fire Within', which is written repeatedly on one of the vessels.  It was a phrase that I kept hearing at the time ,as it was the theme of that year's Winter Olympics.