Just go for it! Make it Intuitive and Free.

It all starts with painting ‘en plein air’ if the weather is good. That is, getting outside to sketch and paint. I use the bare minimum of ‘stuff’ to carry with me and I strap most of this to my waist which frees up my arms. I use an A3 sketch pad of 200g/m2 ( 120lb) paper and simply go for a walk.

It gives you quite a buzz to settle down in a spot which inspires you, get organised and ensure you’ve rags or wipes ‘a plenty’ to mop up spills. Then, just try to absorb the atmospherics and start making marks.

I often start in black and white using compressed charcoal dipped in water. Focus on what ‘strikes you’ in the scene and what marks you can convey and how you feel about it.

Above are examples of ‘part’ sketches in charcoal and I’ve used a brush in water to get some graduatons of grey. Back in the studio I selected some 10cms. square sections of the drawings I made – as shown which I thought I could develop as compositions.

Go back and do another few sessions in colour this time. Use only a limited palette of colours, that is, black and white plus 2 or 3 colours maybe. Make it simple for yourself.

Here are some colour sketches that I’m collating and making collages from.

Then I bought some birch boards which I prepared by using Gesso on them to seal the surfaces.

I didn’t try to copy the collages – its neither possible or desirable but just started using acrylic layers of colour over a few days or weeks. Scraping back, overlaying colour, revealing some marks and not others. This was repeated over time until I was happy with the final images in terms of their composition, colour and texture etc.

Here are my ‘3 series’ called ‘On the edge’ all inspired by watery reflections in spring. See them in the portfolio of my-work. please tell me what you think to them- leave a comment below.

Cheers, Lynne

Available on my online store soon.