Creating inspiration and setting intentions

When I’ve completed a body of work or come to the end of an exhibition, I’m ready to give my studio a good clean and tidy and create space for something new to happen. This time I took a lot of things off my walls, pieces of inspiration that I’ve used previously or no longer feel relevant to me. Lovely as it is to have a spotless studio, I don’t find it very inspiring. So I decided to jump into painting - flex my painting muscles again while also creating pieces to adorn the walls and sow the seeds for what might happen next.

I used lining paper and rolled out a piece as wide as I could fit on the floor, I did the same again and joined the two together to give me a massive single sheet. And then I started with lots of paint and big brushes and big movements to create loose, expansive marks. I find this way of working very freeing, I’m often trying to recapture this ease later on.

I covered the paper in one session and enjoyed myself so much I went straight onto some new paintings. Of course the paper was way too big to go anywhere on the wall, so I cut it up, choosing my favourite details and colours and created lots of collages from this one piece. I love this way of capturing marks you couldn’t have planned.

Looking back now, I can see how the feelings and marks from these starting points have moved into my new paintings.