She looks towards her possibilities.
Nothing is ever really finished. Art like life is this amazing process of creating and evaluating. I have at least 10 works in play at any one time. I am continually researching and looking for new inspiration. A piece I believed finished will often evolve because a part of me has changed. The only promise of completion is when a painting is sold and finds a new home. It is not an exaggeration to say that I have easily got 50 possible pieces in different stages of development. Size, medium, concept and image guide my choice of which direction I wish to explore.
The painting ‘Shelter’ has been exhibited as a finalist in the juried annual prize show ‘She’ in Melbourne but on her return she has lived in my dining room. Somehow I felt she was not quite there but previously I had believed her complete. Yes I wanted the gentleness but I needed to make her pop and she was not quite there yet . I have worked back into her by outlining areas, adding drips, building red green contrast and darkening edges to take her the next step, I also worked back into the girl’s fabric dress and added white fine linemen work. I feel as though she is now much stronger.
This piece has the other layer of being based on an old photograph of Mum and my sister (although in my visual world the child is me). As Mum has been gone for over 10 years, this is about exploring the archetypal mother and child. They are together as the child shelters within her mothers skirt but in this shared space, they both look to something beyond. The butterfly is change and possibilities and as such is a strong symbol to encapsulate the potential of what we as women are becoming as we move through our own rights of passage. always another change around the corner.
Sheltered and safe