In the first collection of paintings I made at the end of last year, I explored my thoughts on walking alone. About how I experience the landscape, my place within it and how my fears and anxieties affect that.
Following on from this work, my attention was focused in on how I feel about water. I have a long-held fear of deep water and the unknown world that exists below the surface. I have, however, always been fascinated by it too. We bought an inflatable canoe last Summer, mainly for my daughters to use but I did wonder if I would be able to muster the courage to have a paddle. When I first sat in that unsteady boat, low in the (albeit shallow) water, a panic quickly rose in me but, after a few minutes that feeling ebbed and was replaced with a deep calm. I cannot explain this huge shift, and I still feel slightly panicked when I visualise myself floating around in the water, but when I’m in the boat I feel entirely happy.
Recently I’ve been listening to another book in the natural navigation series I have mentioned before called ‘How to Read Water’ by Tristan Gooley. I’ve been learning about things like; how to decipher wave patterns on a beach, understanding the different colours of water and how the shape of the shimmering reflections of the sun - the glitter path - is a measure of how high the sun is and the roughness of the waves.
I now find myself increasingly drawn to water, where before I would always have chosen the mountains. I feel huge comfort from the rhythm of the waves, from the ever-shifting shapes of the wind and tides and dancing light on the surface.
Using a combination of watercolour and inks, alongside marks of graphite, pastel and ink, this small collection of paintings on handmade paper explore my new, and developing, relationship with water.
