I’ve spent the morning in the Avebury World Heritage landscape enjoying the sun, listening to both my inner critic and the ‘other’ and allowing myself to let go. It’s difficult to paint REALLY freely in public, especially when you enjoy the paint so much you just want to throw it on and rub your hands and arms in it. Yves Klein I’m not, unfortunately, but I do feel that I want to be more physical, more energetic with my paintings: less ‘stiff’.

I also noticed today that I create little bundles of grass to help wipe and scrape away layers. These bundles are very accident prone, and I really like the risk of using them on wet paint: enjoy the chaos of whisps of the ‘wrong’ colour in the ‘wrong place’. So, I’ve decided to keep the bundles (perhaps for show at some point in the future). I have to admit I was inspired by my husband @jamesaldridge4.

Bundles blue and red. Feb 2017.

The following images from this morning are in reverse order – just so you can see how I ended up where I did. All are acrylic and oil pastel on A2 paper. I’d love to know what you think!

JM