Paper Summer

“Drawing or painting on paper is more impulsive than painting on canvas.”

Gerhard Richter

In a moment of serendipity, I recently received an invitation to create a collection for a show later this year at The Byre Gallery.

There are several reasons why this is amazing.

• The brief is for eight works on paper, no larger than A3, and while there are a handful of topics to work with {including a sea theme }, we can make whatever we like and don't have to work in our usual way. Freedom! {With very helpful boundaries.}

  
  
• I've been 'trying' to find my way in to working on paper in a way that will sit comfortably alongside my regular practice of working on wood panel {and occasionally canvas}, for a long time. I do sometimes work on paper, but it's been sporadic and short lived. This is the perfect opportunity to sort that out.

  
  
• I have about four months to get this done. Plenty of time to make a lot of mess and 'not it' work in my search for 'this feels right'!


  
  
• I'm not currently working on a collection so I have space in both my brain and schedule to devote time to it.
  
  
  
  And so, I've decided to call this my 'Paper Summer', and to take the next few months to explore, play, and experiment with making art on paper in a way that feels really good to me, with the built in goal of ending up with eight pieces to show by mid October.
  
  I’ll be sharing some of the behind the scenes on my artist account on Instagram, using the hashtag #papersummer23
  
  I'll also be sharing about it in my Studio Notes, which is the email list for collectors of my work, since at the end of it there will be eight paintings available for sale.