Much of making art for me is about trying things out. I tend to work in series of works where I am exploring particular ideas that have evolved from other art works I have created. Very often it may appear iterative, where it looks like I am going round and round in circles but it is in the minutiae where my creative head lies.
I have spent a considerable amount of time over the last umpteenth months focusing on collage and painting to do with the wildlife in my garden and my fragmentary and transitory connections with this wildlife. This has included a number of bird works, a fox, a moth, snail and a woodlouse.
In this latter work, my little woodlouse sits amongst a patterned background and environment and it is this pattern that is carrying me forward. Pattern is something that appears in all our lives, from our natural environment, to human routines, behaviour and our connections to things.
I am having a little play with watercolours and pattern (inspired by Paul Klee’s little watercolour works) and am interested in bringing in the human factor in terms of our relationship to pattern and our fragmentary existence. I am at the very early stages of this; my watercolour expertise is currently sadly lacking but I do like a challenge!
The art piece I show here is the inspiration for this new developing series – ‘The wandering woodlouse’.
