Alone...and I like it!

This week has been a step outside the normal hustle, haste and banterfest of our usual everyday.

This week I have been alone...well, apart from our elderly dog, Buzz.

At first the grand canyon for contemplation was disconcerting and then things morphed into a kind of body centric practice whereby I ate when I felt like it, painted when I felt like it, woke when I felt like it, slept when I felt like it...and I like it!

I abandoned the airy studio in favour of the kitchen with it's stove and reliable wifi and covered half of the large table with paints, pens, papers and cut pieces of primed canvas and trialled ideas for a portrait commission.

My want is that the painting communicates the character of it's subject: the vulnerabilities, strengths, interests...

I'm not interested in just achieving a likeness.

So I work to trial the impression given with the strength of a line, a wash of colour, the intensity of an eye, and play with metaphor.

And in between I dance, visit the sheep and nibble on the odd mushroom.