As I’ve previously posted, there have been interruptions in the studio work during these months but nevertheless, thought has been moving forward as I am continuing to explore a wider sense of the natural environment. ‘Sound’ is still the dominant sense because I believe it is the sense which brings us closest to understanding the all inclusive nature of our relationship to the earth. But other senses cannot be blocked out in this search for greater connectedness.
This painting of the garden soundscape concentrated on a dialogue with nasturtiums. This dialogue took place over two weeks with layers of changes, drawing into the shapes, moving daily from representation to abstraction, destroying as the image became too representative, experimenting with the range of greens, changing the direction of the image, trying all the time to let the image speak. I think the struggle was worth it and I find I keep returning to look at the image. I can hear it! I learnt a lot from this creative listening.
I’ve also been exploring how much sound can be heard from colour, in the sketchbook as you can read in post 2 of the studio work. This preliminary sketchbook work has been the basis of a work in progress which is happening now. I am exploring the soundscape through colour and shape and bringing in drawing as well. This is only the start of this piece focused on ‘The last rose’. I feel that there is potential here for some new work exploring layers of colour, scraping back and then drawing into the image.
I also want to start to do some larger work on canvas.