A DOCUMENT I HAVE WRITTEN TO DESCRIBE MY PROCESS IN THE CREATION OF A PAINTING

MY CREATIVE JOURNEY

The Wild Garden of Childhood

Acrylic on canvas: 100 x 70cms/40”x 67”

I made this painting in the spring of 2020 when suddenly the world had closed down and we were slowly getting used to the new normal of living life in a pandemic. I live alone so I knew I would have to dig deep to find strategies to stay strong, both physically and emotionally. My two happiest places in that Spring were my studio andmy garden. I began to write my story and looked back at photographs and memories of my childhood. At the same time, I began work on this painting.

Using my own garden as a model, I remembered back to an overgrown garden in Wales where as a solitary and imaginative child who loved stories, I spun a world for myself in the magical creatures and growth of my wild garden of childhood.

PLAY

I selected a palette of the hot colours that I love and some random mark making tools. I so enjoy this stage of a painting, where nothing matters but the sheer joy of making marks and the breaking up of the white of the canvas. This outpouring of energetic mark making and application of joyful colour is the beginning point for the direction the painting will take.

I looked carefully at my chaotic playful beginning. Deciding how I would proceed, I went into my garden and considered the shapes, the shafts of light filtering through trees, the essence of a beautiful place. Although this was to be a garden from my past and my imagination, I could use my present garden as inspiration.

I took some photographs and made some sketchy drawings. I didn’t want to make a realistic painting, I wanted to capture the life and spirit of a moment in time.

My drawings were loose, playful, monochrome and abstract as I studied forms, movement, shadow and light.