During my first year as a MA student studying Fine Art and Education at The University of Northumbria I investigated colour.

I had a break from painting but recently felt the need to start again, I was troubled by the two questions, 'How to find a way into painting again?' and 'What to paint?'  

I had become disatisfied with my old way of working, that is to have the completed painting finished in my mind and filling in the forms on canvas.

How can I start anew?

Over the course of the Autumn term I had been introducing the complementary colours to my students. It was a question of looking at the colour wheel, mixing the two opposites and gradually adding the darker to the lighter (we were using watercolour). Then we made a line of squares as the colour changes.

As a starting point, in a sense, of beginning to make marks and as a 'way in' to painting, I began to make some watercolour sheets of squares, playing with different pigments and making complementaries.

I decided to paint on a large square canvas 100cm x 100cm. I started to make squares of  colour in the centre of the painting and work out, gradually the top became darker and the centre lighter. Some of the squares  began to lengthen into ribbons. I was  beginning the painting intuitively I wanted to surprise myself and this way the excitement of painting could be sustained. I realised that with this approach the painting would end up being layered as each stage was reassessed and painted over, adjusted, areas highlighted and subdued.

It would take more time than my usual method and the painting would end up looking nothing like the original marks made on it, it was exciting to see what would happen. I began two other paintings which I alternated as I left one to dry.

Here are some samples of the works in progress.

As I progressed I found that landscape forms were appearing, I started to feel preferences for colours and the saturated colours I was working with became muted. At the same time I began to make some gouaches they were sketches in preperation for oil painting and these began to look quite expressionistic.

Website last updated November 2007 

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