Painting

I haven't painted for a while, or not in oils. Partly that's because much of the studio is packed up awaiting transfer to the little green shed. And partly it's because I haven't felt much like painting. Today, though, I went upstairs and... surprised myself. I took a number of pictures of a wall in Lyon last year (other people snapped the quilts, I went for a distressed patch in the wall...figures, I suppose). I've been trying to get it straight in my head, how to work with those images. Or rather, how to work in response to those images, because I don't want to work with photographs. Finally, something or other in my head shifted, and I came up with several paintings that are the beginnings of a way to approach the subject, which in my mind is about scars and healing.

The new pieces are quite different in feel and palette to anything I've done before, or at least to most other things I've done before, as I can recognise at least one transition piece, and some experimental work with acrylics before that. All of that has been sloshing about in my head, along with other thoughts, and finally, something is coming to fruition. Now, if only oils dried quicker...

The pieces shown today are small ones, it will be interesting to take this approach and use it on larger works. For now, though, I'm sticking with small. See what you think.