Failures in art and quirky trees - the story of 2023 so far

I’ve actually painted some awful work since the New Year and haven’t been happy with any of it. I think having a deadline like an art fair has led me to try to finish as many paintings as possible, so I started too many. I was very ambitious with different sizes and shapes of boatd and different medium. I was also trying to do lots of printmaking to show what a versatile artist I am.

However, all the paintings became muddy and dark and I lost my way with most of them.

I’ve ended up putting all those paintings to one side in a darkened room, to be sanded back and recreated as something new when I can face it again. By lightening my pallet, working directly from my sketchbook and notes on morning runs (the way I did with my Mark some cards) produced this small series of paintings and collage on wood, that I’m quite pleased with.

Some of my new work - two small mixed media/collage panels reflecting the quirkiness and delicacy of trees at this time of year. Their twisted shapes often make me smile ‘out loud’ to myself (I want to hug them) They seem to have such fabulous personalities and are all completely different.

The palette is very light n bright - I think a reflection on the lengthening days and sense of new life 🌿🌱

On a slightly less positive note, I’ve been spending lots of time in local woods that have been decimated in the last few years. The farmer decided to cut them back and left lots of dead tree, then storm Arwin came and finished the job.

It’s taking me awhile to go back in there because it was such a wonderful place to run and walk through and it was really my safe place during Covid it was easily within my allotted hour. I was allowed out and I spent a lot of time in there and was devastated when the trees were taken down. Now the woods are really a mess but in some ways they’re lovely mess and it’s wonderful this time of year to see new shoots new leaves and growth take place around the fallen trees because there are still a lot of them, left many of them very young. In these paintings, I’ve tried to capture that sense of new and old life growing and the colours and texture in the woods that make them such a wonderful place to be.