2025 Lost and found
'Lost and found' is a collection of mixed media paintings on paper and cradled panel. My love of being in nature is one of the things that I draw on for inspiration. The dynamic ocean, the sense of peace from being in among trees, bushes and plants, the feeling of wind in my hair and the taste of salt in the air. I am of an age where I have accumulated a lot of stuff. I am gradually trying to declutter and have a rich resource of old papers, letters and collage papers that I am incorporating into paintings. I like to make 'skins' by putting one small piece of paper/collage down and then adding another piece to that, building the 'skin' like a patchwork. I then have an interesting surface to work on. What to cover and not cover is both a conscious and an unconscious decision as I work on the surface I have created, sometimes deciding with my literal brain and sometimes just following my intuition.
I have used an image from my art school days when I was making direct prints from the body and have manipulated this old image by combining the body shape with collage, inks and acrylic paints in different ways depending on the focus. Each one represents a different element. 'Earth' is painted in earthy complementary colours, 'Air' is mainly black and white with an airy layer of gassy blue. 'Water' is painted on a wavy grid in saturated and unsaturated blues. 'Fire' is painted in mainly warm colours with added text and emojis borrowed from social media. The drama created by our exposure to social media is like a bush fire and we do need to control and contain it or it will burn us out.
The seascapes are layers of paint over mark-making, representing the dynamic movement of the water and the splash and crash of water hitting solid rock or thumping onto the sand, kicking up flicks of debris. The landscapes are moments of peacefulness in nature, those rare moments we find when everyone has gone home and you have a few moments to yourself to reflect and to just be...just you and the birds and leaves and breezes....breathing in and breathing out, getting calmer and more at peace. There is so much to notice in nature, every grain of sand is unique and nature really is the best painter.
I have used an image from my art school days when I was making direct prints from the body and have manipulated this old image by combining the body shape with collage, inks and acrylic paints in different ways depending on the focus. Each one represents a different element. 'Earth' is painted in earthy complementary colours, 'Air' is mainly black and white with an airy layer of gassy blue. 'Water' is painted on a wavy grid in saturated and unsaturated blues. 'Fire' is painted in mainly warm colours with added text and emojis borrowed from social media. The drama created by our exposure to social media is like a bush fire and we do need to control and contain it or it will burn us out.
The seascapes are layers of paint over mark-making, representing the dynamic movement of the water and the splash and crash of water hitting solid rock or thumping onto the sand, kicking up flicks of debris. The landscapes are moments of peacefulness in nature, those rare moments we find when everyone has gone home and you have a few moments to yourself to reflect and to just be...just you and the birds and leaves and breezes....breathing in and breathing out, getting calmer and more at peace. There is so much to notice in nature, every grain of sand is unique and nature really is the best painter.
