Grids

Finding a way to translate my compulsive photography into something painterly, my making of grids formalised with the Somerset Reacquainted project in 2020.

When considering a subject, I often think in 'series of', photographs, drawings, paintings etc and I frequently return to mark making in rows and rows of lines, exploring the meditative quality of repetition. When looking for a way to translate a large resource of phone photos (where I record daily experience as some sort of compulsive visual diary) into a painterly response I thought of watercolour and its simplicity and immediacy, and these first abstract paintings/drawings you see here happened as a result.

A crucial part of the grids is the original photo taking on my phone, playing with images and collaging them into more detailed grids. This is so important because in a busy life of artist, mother and work commitments, using my phone as this kind of sketch tool is another way of pushing my art practice, grabbing small moments at any possible time, reviewing and editing in any place, taking an experience and developing it further.

I have also noticed working on these that I seem to naturally pick out grids and circles, simple lines and repeated patterns, in my daily life. Like some kind of game or puzzle. I think it is part of a 'noticing', an embedded mindfulness, gratefully received from past therapy but has also been a part of my way of seeing since being a small child. An organising and understanding of the world around me. In mindfulness we are given an understanding of the breath and of being in the moment. In noticing my surroundings I recognise a sense of being and a sense of reality and through repetitive mark making I can make this tangible, sometimes reducing this to simple stroke after stroke. Noticing, being, making, breathing.

In 2022 I played with photographic stage of this process, limiting the subject to particular things, following a creative instinct. A couple of these works in progress are shown at the bottom of the page. Gathering colour, experience and collaging them together. More on these to come and a way in which Grids have formed a link to Moon.