I work from my studio barn in Northamptonshire. Here I have space to explore and develop my ideas. I work in a range of different media including, acrylic, gouache, watercolour, print, mixed media and collage. I love to add texture and print on my work.
I find the design and shapes in an image combined with light and shade appeal to me most. I often like to interpret my chosen image in a limited combinations of colours that I feel work together but are not necessarily representational. I like my painting to be of interest ‘close to’ with textures that make you want to touch the surface and also that stand out from a distance.
In my collage landscapes I use different mark making and printing tools with a limited palette of acrylic paints on a range of different types and textures of paper. I enjoy working with handmade papers which are soft and leave lovely rip lines. I rip the painted papers and arrange them in layers to suggest landscapes or seascapes or still lifes. I sometimes add fabric, inks and pastels to soften the edges of the ripped papers and to meld the painting into a whole.
In my acrylic paintings I work on canvas or board. With board I can scratch and scrape back paint to reveal layers underneath and add collage and pastel. On canvas I am interested in building up textured areas and layers of paint where the underneath colours peep through the top layers, which are often translucent glazes .
I have developed my version of the ‘gouache resist’ where I paint my image in white gouache on very thick textured watercolour paper. Then I cover the whole surface with Indian ink (which resists the gouache) and finally wash off to reveal my image which appears like a heavily grained black and white print. These images I sometimes leave black and white or paint with translucent watercolour or acrylic inks with some hand printing of textures.
With lino relief printing I enjoy simplifying an image. The physical act of gouging away at the surface of the lino and the hands-on rolling of ink with the roller onto the block and then applying pressure to the paper before peeling off to reveal the print. What’s not to like ?! I am exploring combining Lino printing onto pre painted surfaces and enhancing prints with translucent acrylic inks.