Work in progress to concept process

This painting has been on and off my easel since May. In June I posted that it was nearly finished and finally I think it is. I found it difficult to settle back into painting it on Friday morning last but want to get it to the framer for an up and coming exhibition (more information on that soon). 

I used to spend four to six hours painting a picture in one sitting - I don't now. Paintings are started and stopped at different stages, leaving them to process a bit, coming back to the paintings and sometime not.

This painting feels significant and has a similar quality to Evoke although as you will see it has evolved somewhat. 

I battled with it not painting very much but trying to see where the blues should be, where they flowed. At some stage I felt like I was going around in circles and the blues were muddled with out a good balance. I'll post a better photo of it when my camera is back in action later this week. I'm happy with it now the blues swirl and sing. To my eye the painting is balanced. I will let it dry varnish it and then have another look at it. The perfectionist in me gasps when I say "I am happy with it", my genius tells it to get over it's self!

Oh I love when those two pieces of my personality sidestep each other and I can get on.

Last week I made several pieces of felt some for gifts others just to try out ideas that had been floating around. Perhaps because of that process of making things and moving through ideas others have started to come to the fore.

This was a process piece I painted to warm up this morning before I started painting on the larger piece above. For some reason I quite like to cut these process paintings up and weave them. It looks quiet effective here. 

But this is not the finished piece; I like the idea that this bows of a background.  So I am going to explore affixing this woven piece to a background and possibly painting it again. I have used this woven technique before but more for processing rather then for making finished work. I did n't think it was related to the next piece but as I go to write about it I see they are linked.

The images that follow next are a concept in transition for a painting. This idea came into my brain someday last week but it's not right yet...

Again it is something to do with the protrusions being painted and sticking out - but they need to be coated in paint. This is linked in some visual way to 'Life' a very textured piece of felt made in 2007 for the 'Footprints in my heart...' exhibition. The center area was knitted and then felted into the background. Leaving the top fluffy and standing proud of the background.

 This is why I love photography, the ability to photograph something from different angles and make it look different, unique, etc. I have made a little movie but am having difficulty uploading it to Vimeo and hence attaching it to my blog. I've been getting re-connected to all those great skills of movie making I learnt in college. It is over the time to go out and play with my kids so the other images will have to wait until tomorrow except this one.