Art is one of those things that often surprises you. As a piece evolves you find yourself making unexpected marks and the piece itself seems to take control of the journey. As I explore all the wonderful possibilities and am creating my piece for She, I know I am building the strength is my knowledge base. I find lovely distractions such as Donna Downey’s inspiration Tuesday’s and it is fun. I also realise that the depth of layers and complexity are not always necessary for the work. This painting for the ‘She’ exhibition is about deepening my understanding and the overall strength of my finished piece. Every space is about how to build the mark making and possibilities within each layer. Some layers are lost within the image. There was a fifth face that no longer exists. What I do know is that each time I do pieces with the complexity of multiple faces, is that my understanding grows and the process becomes more natural and easier to obtain. The challenge is to avoid the trap of a formula so that you keep growing while at the same time developing a strong body of work. I have decided to include a more animal based side series to these figurative paintings. This gives me a greater ability to play as the demands of the pieces are less. The ‘cute owls’ mixed media painting fell into place easily as the knowledge gained from all my previous pieces allowed me to flow more easily.

This is the natural flow that I love. The moments when time stands still. Art itself is a push and pull between this intuitive flow and the analytical process of measuring, comparing and standing back to view the piece to decide wether everything has fallen into place and is complete. Of course complete is only a transient stage as something that is complete today may be reworked tomorrow as knowledge grows.

I am including the image for my ‘She’ entry although she is not quite finished. The eyes and flowers need work obviously. My daughter called it a hair rainbow which I guessit is but it is also very much a goddess image as life flows forward and blooms in her outstretched hand.

The question I ask myself continually is ‘what parts do I love?’ At first this may only be a small section of a piece but as I continue the exploration, the areas I love expand, until finally I am complete, as is the art work.

Art through the layers…finding the areas I love.