Sketch Book Journey – 11

Pond life

Clearly back to a water theme here although incorporating the use of the greens inspired by my trip to Rusthall rocks and adding silver (I just can’t resist adding silver – it always gives another dimension to my pieces- it’s the reflective quality I’m drawn to). I actually sketched on the downward projection but it just wasn’t working for me. I realised it looked so much better if I turned the sketch book on it’s side – it reminds me of a Lilly pond.

The joy of working in an abstract way on canvas and is that it is possible to turn the painting if it’s not working on one plane to another if it’s not working for you – I heard Damien Hirst saying this the other day about a piece of his work and I was pleased I was in such esteemed company. (now I know some of you may differ on this opinion of him but if you do I urge you to watch his instagram posts where he explains the background to his work – it’s really quite interesting- I added the link on his name – let me know if you agree)

Well, this happened when I was working on one of my first paintings – I had completely gone off course to where I had planned, I gave the painting up as a lost cause and decided to paint over and start again – that is the beauty of working in oils. I happened to have loud classical music blaring out through my speakers at the time and with large paintbrush in hand I started pushing the paint across the canvas while getting lost in the music and dancing. I was in mid penché -a ballet movement which is basically a split on one leg with the body tilted forward- I was a trained ballet dancer – please don’t try this at home if you’re not trained! ; – when I happened to turn my head sideways to look at my painting – with one leg flailing about in mid air I thought, ‘now this looks interesting I could do something with this!’ In bubbling excitement I turn the canvas over on it’s side and there to my amazement in front of me was the perfect base for my painting ‘Into the Blue’.

Into The Blue

Don’t you just love it when the unexpected happens and actually works out perfectly?

Mediums: Lamy pen; black ink; Seawhite of Brighton Sketch book; Professional watercolours – Schmincke; Winsor & Newton: Silver pen-Uniball Signo

If you would like to see more of my art please visit Saatchi Art or see more of my inspirations and on-going work on instagram

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