I have had a busy few weeks! In October I exhibited some paintings from last year in an village house here in Spain. Whilst the exhibition was planned, an Art Walk event involving 30+ artists, I had no idea where I would be allocated a space but I found myself in a traditional Spanish house, the room I exhibited my work in was newly plastered with white walls, the rest of the house was unrenovated and being used for storage.

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The exhibition went well with hundreds of visitors over the three days from 17 different nationalities. It was an opportunity to talk about my work, but also in quiet times to reflect on it and consider where to go next. I love painting, the challenge of problem solving, shape colour and composition but my best and most rewarding work springs from a source, is informed by a starting point whether that is a journey, a walk or closely observing geology.

Whilst in the house I took a series of photographs, I was careful not to touch or arrange anything..just seek out areas that interested me. We all have our own personal aesthetic, things we are inherently drawn to, so what happened next shouldn’t have been such a surprise.

I in the ‘gallery’ later that day I sat and looked at the photos. I was struck how the otherwise unrelated paintings related to the photographs, they could have been painted for the space they were displayed in. I had fun relating aspects of various paintings to photographs.

Back in my studio I set to work. I knew I wanted to push the boundaries of representation, and wanted my work to be about, but not of, the house. I stapled large sheets of paper to the wall and set up a TV screen so that I could see the images large. Drawing by looking at the slideshow with a range of media, going over each drawing as a new image appeared on the screen was exciting and liberating. The process of mark making and looking/responding being like a dance, I aware that this was an important and meaningful turning point, even though at that staged had no idea where it would lead me.

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When I ran out of space I stapled two concertina sketchbooks, one white and one black, over the paper and just carried on! I took close up photographs of sections of the drawing. Exciting and dynamic shapes were appearing! Whilst in close up they were unrecognizable I knew where the lines and shapes had their source, this was authentic abstraction.

At the end of the day I had 6 x A2 drawings and two concertina sketchbooks…

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In June I went on a workshop with Lewis Noble. I had been enjoying seeing how he built his own approach to creating. What struck me in particular was his insistence on the work being authentic to the source, nothing is added to the sketches back in the studio that he didn’t see or respond to in the field. These sketches are then used to inform his paintings, not copied it reproduced but rather he may take two or three collages and select elements from them. Whilst I got a lot out of the workshop with Lewis I don’t consider myself a landscape artist, but I knew these aspects of authenticity and selection were important to my work and have been seeking ways to incorporate them in my practice.

I made two viewfinders; one 25cm square and the other 15cm square and placed them over the drawings, seeking out and selecting areas. I was looking for strong compositions, interesting juxtapositionings. These I cut out and placed in a sketchbook. A few needed more; a dark area or a dividing line, but I only collaged on what I had from the drawings, nothing additional was added in the spirit of authenticity.

The black concertina book I left as it was, I really liked how the black paper contrasted with the whites and ochres I had used.

With the white concertina book I sat with black and white Posca pens and the objects I had ‘liberated’ from the house: an old electric socket, pieces of tile and rubble, wire, wrappers etc and drew shapes on top of the drawings already in the sketchbook.

So what’s next? I used the compositions, the objects and the colours from the house to inform a series of multi layered paintings….but that’s the next blog post!