I am excited about the Paper work collaboration – where it might lead, who the other participants are, will they be sympathetic. I have been thinking, looking, drawing threads together for the first topic, ‘Straight’.
I am currently working towards a solo exhibition in October exploring the feeling of various landscapes through colour, and I am looking for ways to link the two projects, hoping that one will feed into the other. I have been sifting through my large collection of ‘palette prints’ and doodles, looking for starting points.
One thing I am experiencing is a tension between wanting to present a good piece of work to the project and not wanting anybody else to intervene with it, as is very likely to be the case. Unaccustomed to collaboration in art work, I am outside my comfort zone.
. I was realising that ‘straight’ is quite an alien concept to me, my work being layered,gestural and free. But some time ago, I made a large series of drawings and paintings that were vertical stripes, inspired by the windows in our old Pennine cottage. Like the windows, the series was called ‘Mullions’. These bands of colour were not pristine or hard-edged but melded in to each other, with some sharper edges here and there.
I decided to photograph one of the Mullion series pieces still in my possession, an oil pastel drawing on paper. I printed the photograph on to Hahnemuller Inkjet Fine Art paper, 310g/m2, and worked on top of the print with wax crayons It is a piece I can easily pass on, and the thickness and strength of the paper, I hope, will enable interventions.
