Blue Slate

I was at Bristol Art College in the early eighties when painting with paint was still a practice. I left to paint boats from top to bottom, including the lettering but continued my art with small group and individual shows which were successful for several years.

After a gap when gardening and creating gardens took over the urge to paint has returned. Ideas of the content of my paintings are starting to come from a place or state that is not 'mind' so the process is one of allowing the activity of painting with less or no attachment to the outcome.

This piece came at the end of a series of paintings that grew from shapes found on pebbles on Shaldon beach. I love the whole process, from walking, looking, the stone that catches the eye, the study, my response. And once home, the endless choice of treatment; surface, texture, colour, and the little story that appears in my head as I work. I kept these three as playful, letting my intuition guide me. One is all surface, though the translucent paint gives a certain depth. The other two came from a stone that gave me a narrative - there really was a tiny house on that tiny pebble. I still have it on my windowsill.

Oil on Wood

35.5x28cm

Unframed