About ten years ago Mary Loney shut me in a small room with a still life set up and some acrylic paint. I had avoided painting entirely up to that point in my life, mostly due to the fact that I was terrified of colour, or more specifically, trying to replicate colours.
When I started painting with oils I limited myself to four tubes of paint: alizarin crimson; prussian blue; naples yellow and white, mixing all colours from these, starting with single object compositions – suiting my restricted palette.
I have spent ten years in my comfort zone of artefacts and possessions – they have a general tendency to remain the same colour between sittings, unlike nature – whilst expanding my palatte to two reds; two blues; three yellows; two browns and white.
Maybe one day soon I will feel brave enough to attempt to use nature and the great outdoors as my subject matter and imagine that I might be able to do it some justice.
Until that day…..there is photography….