Behind the Scenes: Starting a new painting collection

After what feels like a million years {although in ‘actual’ made up human time, just a few months}, the new collection idea finally came forward, and ever since I’ve been in the studio every day, assisting in its unfolding.

It’s funny how creating a collection is both a relief - working in multiples is so much easier for all sorts of reasons - and a challenge - I have to stay vigilant to avoid funnelling myself into formulaic ‘step by step’ painting.

The first thing is to get out all my boards, and lay them on the floor along with all the paints, brushes, and other bits and pieces I’ll be using.

I check how many panels I have, and what the range of sizes is. For this collection there will be ten paintings. {Unless any of them don’t make it. 😆}

For some reason, this time I’ve been working ‘in the round’, sitting in the centre of the boards so I can turn and move between them easily.

I like to work on the floor because I can move my whole body and spread out, and it’s cheap lino, so it’s fine if it gets wrecked. Which it really does.

I start with the ‘wild abandon’ phase, pouring, spraying, dripping and blending to my heart’s content. I’m looking for interesting shapes, blends, and balance, although that can and will be changed later.

While the painting stages have evolved and refined over time, it’s only partly intentional. You simply can’t plan paintings like this.

This approach satisfies my need for both unfettered expressiveness and a slower paced, more thoughtful drawing of detail.

I managed to literally paint myself into a corner here:

There’s often a phase 1b of the process - where the first layers are down and I go back in while they’re still wet and add embellishments here and there.

Not too refined, just where my eye feels pulled to add or remove something.

I’m thinking all the time about immediacy, the ‘nowness’ of sea swimming, and trying to avoid old habits of ‘making too much sense’, tidying up, colouring in, and ‘making a landscape’. {Those pesky horizon lines sometimes really want to be included!}

Then they go up on the wall for some pondering and to see them all together on a white background without the mayhem of the floor distracting me.

This can take some time, while I decide if they need anything more before phase 2. Some do.

And then it’s time to start in with the details.

I use reference images from my own photos as well as pieces of gathered seaweed, but don’t stick to them rigidly. They’re more of a jumping off point.

I’ve been using copper paint this time, which has a lovely subtle shimmer, quieter and warmer than gold, and which works beautifully with the reddish pinks of the seaweed.

Phase 2 is much slower than phase one, which can be meditative or frustrating, depending on my mood and how successfully I feel it’s going!

I can spend hours just looking at the paintings, feeling into the next right step for each, which is often not at all clear and requires risk taking and changes of mind and having to work with what’s already there, which can feel very limiting but is also part of the challenge.

Stay tuned for more as the collection evolves, and find out what the title will be!

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