A New Beginning

Hello, and welcome to my art world on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk, in the UK.

Here in my studio notes I thought I’d write about all the various things that go into the melting pot that results in the art that I create.

Since this is my first post, I’ll tell you about my first tentative steps in 2019 when I started painting.

I’d sold my greeting card business earlier in the year, joined a local art class and then discovered an online free art course, Find Your Joy, run by the most amazing abstract landscape artist, Louise Fletcher. If you’ve not heard of her, do go and find her on Instagram or her own website.

Simply pushing paint around to see how it feels - hey, it feels good!

Those few days (and the longer courses that I subsequently took) unlocked something in me – that freedom to make marks, to enjoy the process without worrying about the outcomes. No finished paintings for me – I was having way to much fun throwing ink and paint about, and dragging sticks and forks through the wet paint.

Mark making with sticks and a mushroom

Three years later, and I still love going back to those first loosening up exercises from those 5 days. I still love the process, and still don’t produce that many actual paintings - because I’m still exploring and learning what I love and what I don’t love quite so much.

I have weeks where I do nothing, but I’m learning that a lot can happen inside during these seemingly fallow times.

This blog will not be consistent with it’s timing, but it will be where I show you what is inspiring me, my experiments, maybe some early layers of a painting. I hope that you may pop in here from time to time for a catch up.

Detail from a watercolour when I started to discover a love of this tricky medium