Drawing in Oil Pastels
Collecting
While I am out in enjoying the wonders of the natural world I like to collect natural objects. I have various collections consisting mainly of shells, pebbles, pine cones and leaves. It has become an important part of my process.
Since I was a child I have always liked collecting things particularly natural objects. Collecting as an adult feels somewhat nostalgic I guess. As children my sister and I used to go to the beach with our grandparents and collect pebbles and shells. They had a stone polisher which I remember took hours to polish the pebbles but they would look so nice when they were done. We would also go on a lot of walks in the countryside with our parents often collecting natural objects which we would then make a collage from. Which brings me to collage and arranging objects.
Collage
Collage and arranging natural objects has become a large part of my process. I find it relaxing and someone therapeutic. I predominantly create my collages in photoshop or similar. The collages are created using patterned paper I have painted or drawn on using various mediums including gouache, acrylic paint and chalk pastels.
Winter on the Fens, Norfolk
I’ve recently changed location and I’m enjoying the sunsets from my window. It’s incredibly inspiring. I love how in the photo above the sky almost looks painted.
I always feel truly inspired when I visit Holkham bay. On my recent visits I have collected objects from the beach to inspire colour palettes for landscape paintings and collage paper.
Photography is often part of my process in selecting the landscape I am going to paint. I tend to paint from photographs I have taken.
Experimenting with cyanotype process. In the left image are plants collect from the garden, on the right is sea lavender collected from Holkham Bay
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Artwork available to by on Etsy