I’ve just got back from seeing my Exhibition go up in Hamilton (a city about three and a half hours drive away). I’ve come back to a relatively short list of jobs to get done and then I will have a cleanish slate to start something new.

It’s a lovely feeling, to see a project to completion and then turn to face the prospect of something new. But what?

Recently I completed a mixedmedia work on paper integrating an old photo of a location in town here taken in the 1950’s. It was fun incorporating the photo into the abstract hotchpotch of paint, and it’s got me thinking about exploring this further. Using the photo as another aspect of collage could be interesting.

I also really enjoyed letting loose with drawing and using dry media a lot more in my paintings when I was working on the large sized paintings. This added a playful looseness which I really liked and prevented me working in a straight-line towards finishing when after each painting session I would draw and scribble over the painting. Coming back into it the next day I would cover a lot of the drawing over but the little remnants that peeped through were really fun suggesting a naivety which I liked.

Then there’s the colour. I think it’s time to lock up the baby-poo yellow. I know, I know…. It’s a rich, gorgeous colour and every painting is always better for it, but…. I feel the need to push myself to find another gorgeous go-to.

On my way home from Hamilton I stopped in at the Art Supplies shop and threw an eye-watering amount of money down in exchange for a bucket of gesso and an assortment of pastels, palette knives and brushes. They put them into a big brown bag in an effort to convince me that I had really bought a LOT, but I wasn’t fooled. However, in the hope of a few sold paintings I walked out happily anticipating a tidy studio, new canvases and lining up my new supplies without taking the bank balance into the red.

Did I just mention tidy studio? Wouldn’t that be nice. I promise myself to transform the wreck that it is now into an ordered tidy version in preparation for my new beginnings. Start as you mean to go on, - but who am I trying to kid?

The start will be fun with clear surfaces and the dead leaves swept out into the garden from whence they came, but I know it won’t be long before an ill autumn wind will have all that loose detritus gathering in the corners and littering the floor again. This is the pitfall of working in a converted outdoor space. Not that I’m complaining…

It’s a lovely feeling though relishing this new exploration with new materials in a tidy-ish studio. What will this lot of work finally become? I have no idea, a few glimpses of maybe this or that – but nothing to describe or plan or aspire to attain. What I do know though is that there will be surprises, there will be ghastly bits, there will be music, loud singing and jigging. I’ll talk to myself, I’ll spend a good deal of time sitting and staring at whatever’s on the wall, I’ll ponder and ask all the usual questions.

I wonder if I’ll come up with some different answers. I really hope so. Not because I’m dissatisfied with the solutions I found in my recent work, but more that I’m buoyed by those and want to race down the road in my art journey to see what’s around the next corner.

I’ll keep you posted.

I’ll be posting video’s of what I’m doing here and posting in Instagram, so make sure you’re signed up to receive my weekly newsletter which will keep you up to date.

If you’re not in my Facebook Group The Upbeat Artists you had better join as it’s the best, most supportive group of lovely artists with such diverse work. It’s a treat to drop into and see what’s happening and I have some free mixed-media tutorials if you’re wanting to embark on a new project too.