The photo on the left was taken in August last year at the end of a course I had been taking, Nicholas Wilton’s Creative Visionary Program. I absolutely loved the painting and experimenting I did during those 12 weeks. I was pleased with my panels, but I also thought, where do I go from here? I enjoyed working so abstractly, but I felt I was missing the reason for doing it, I needed them to be rooted in something. So, after a bit of a break, I started painting again, on paper and board and started a big piece, (ignoring all the advice about moving bigger in increments). I was using my holiday photos from the Isle of Skye as well as sketchbooks. I was still applying paint in a more playful way, but it was much more representational and failing the test of do I love it, do I want to put it on my wall. I had got into a bit of a rut and it took me a while to realise it.

I started again. I took a big brush and painted over the big piece. I went back to my inspiration and held these ideas lightly in my mind as I painted.  I thought more about the colours I was choosing, working with a sense of play and curiosity, and kept going, building up my studio time, working in my sketchbook and drawing in the landscape. 

I now have 12 new paintings on those panels, and I feel like they have a sense of me in them.  They hang together, the colours work.  They are all rooted in the landscape, some more abstract than others.  I am pleased with them but am looking forward to what comes next.