The Wiltshire countryside doesn’t quite have the same flow of energy as I found in Cornwall. I’m not surprised by that, but it does change the way I work. The rough seas and heavy clouds on the coast seem to paint themselves, whereas the hills and woods of the Pewsey Downs sit firmly in nature, waiting to be interpreted by lines and colour. 

This time of year (April) is full of the brightest colours. The sky, the newly formed leaves, blossom and forest flowers, each with their own ‘spark’ create intense feelings in me. It’s only really now, when colour is at its most intense, that I can imagine the summers in the south of France of Matisse, or the vibrancy of Picasso’s Spain. More heat would be welcome of course.

  
I’d like to see colour more fully, more nuanced, or varied. Hockney is a big inspiration to me with colour. He knows how to look and see colours that are almost invisible to all the rest of us. ‘We’ve forgotten how to look’ he said. That is probably true: it’s hard to see ‘real’ colours when we’re hard wired to expect the basics (leaves are green, the sky is blue, clouds are white).

So, what does all this mean? I think it means getting into the headspace for being artful, and by that I mean truly LIVING in that headspace all the time. Experiencing the world artfully; Being in the world artfully; Thinking and acting out only things that adhere to my artful/soulful nature. Or something like that.