Different but Painted with the Same Hand

'February Poem,' oil on canvas, 60 x 45 cm

I used to worry a lot about consistency of approach in my work but in the last few years this worry has simply become irrelevant. I don't censor myself because everything feeds into my core approach and both figuration and abstraction overlap in my work. Ideas spin off in to other ideas and I want to keep it all flowing. 

Before art school I was initially tutored by a traditional landscape artist and the first painting I am posting reflects this. It is being entered for a landscape event and it was inspired by a group of trees I pass several times a week. I love the colours of winter (even though most of my work is brightly coloured), and while much of my work is process driven, this ended up being an intense exploration of those subtle winter colours and the movement of branches. Sometimes I like to return to this more figurative mode of working because it helps me 'tighten up' my abstract based work and pushes me to think about edges and drawing, which are as important components in abstraction or spontaneous ways of working as they are in figurative paintings.

'Integration,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 100 x 140cm

This second painting is a work that is still in progress - a previous version was posted quite recently - and I am still thinking about it. I wanted a lot of empty space in this painting and the theme is integration and I wanted the figures to integrate with the 'bricks' of colour and to become brick-like in places, and for various shapes to emerge from the landscape to symbolise evolving ideas and connections. This is largish, 100 x 140 cm.

'Eventually the Light came back,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 60 x 45 cm

I am also getting back to working from my ink paintings and taking ideas from them on to canvas. I enjoy the life of brush strokes. The above posted painting may still be in progress. Once I have finished the more figurative based paintings I will be painting a series of ink works on rice paper and taking them on to very large canvases to explore the liquid qualities of paint, mark making and drawing with colour.

My main point is, do what you need to do. Let it make sense later when connections may be revealed. This way new ideas slowly filter through and there is no right or wrong way.

PS. I was pleased to find that my painting 'Land Spirits' arrrived in Macedonia safely (posted in the previous post).