Solstice offering

It gets better now - the days will be longer.

This is one of my paintings. It's is a kind of self-encouragement effort to start painting again once I get clear of the website project I am working on. I find that I just can't do both - the head-space is different and building complex websites tends to use up all of it.

The painting, one of the last I did, was done in 2010 and was based on a study of rock formations. It's only 12 inches square and is mixed media (acrylics, inks and watercolour) on handmade Japanese paper mounted onto heavy Saunders Rough watercolour paper. Because I am more naturally a designer than a painter, I need to use strategies to prevent myself 'designing' images - so I use materials that have a life of their own - rough absorbent paper, very wet colour, overlaid glazes, large brushes and pens made from found objects.

Photographs of paintings rarely capture everything. This is not too bad (it was behind glass) but is missing some of the subtle reds and blues in the actual painting.

Happy Solstice everyone!