To share with you something of the process of creating one of my artworks, I have created this montage of eight stages of A Handful of Lotus Seeds. This is a pastel painting, using pastel pencils on Pastelmat paper. This allows for a lot of detail which is of course important to me, and as the pastel builds and blends on the page it becomes beautifully creamy.
This artwork has already proved very popular with those who have seen it. The rich earthy colours draw people in, and the contrasting blurred background with the highly detailed hands creates an image that invites closer inspection. For me it is these things plus the narrative that is created that excites, I can just imagine someone crouching down before a mass of lotus seeds, scooping them up in her hands, and how they must sound and feel. We are transported to her world, an act that is no doubt immensely familar to her whilst to myself at least, something I have never experienced yet can still relate to.
It is the commonality in difference that is the driving force behind so much of my artwork. We are all completely individual, yet in so many ways fundamentally the same.
Once the full series of hands studies has been completed, I will make available limited edition prints and greetings cards of A Handful of Lotus Seeds, A Handful of Salt, A Handful of Chillies and the others.
Thanks go to Réhahn Photography for his amazing image.
