Digital variations made on the iPad pasting in and transforming photographs of some of my artworks on paper.
Monday 1 April 2024
Sunday 24 March 2024
Thursday 25 January 2024
Thursday 18 January 2024
Tuesday 16 January 2024
Foliage Still Life in Blue and Purple
My starting point was a photograph of a moody and decorative collage made on a dark winter's day out of cut and torn fragments from another piece along with crystalline watercolour to bring out the forms. Multiplying, transforming and layering the image I made variations on my iPad. The original collage is the first image followed by three of my favourites from the sequence.
Saturday 6 January 2024
Ratnadakini, Sky Dancer of Earth and Jewels
Next in the series of small circular paintings of the five wisdom dakinis. Ratnadakini is accompanied by Ratnasambhava's horses (they support his lotus throne) and dragons. For me dragons are wisdom beings akin to Nagas and also symbolise the freeing of the subtle energies of the body.
Friday 29 December 2023
Magic City Doodles
More ideas for ways to make an image of the Magic City of the White Lotus Sutra.
My current exploration across all themes is the interplay between spontaneity and planning. Improvisation versus structure. Making a surface combining different kinds of wet and dry media on paper.
In today's doodle I play with light and dark using tinted charcoal and gold pen, thinking about pyramids, the sun and moon and a stairway to heaven.
And this is an earlier mixed media sketch (pastels, water, marker pen) - there surely are gardens and music in the magic city. .
Friday 8 December 2023
Solid Air
A few studies from my sketchbook using oil pastels and watercolour aiming to express a sense of the element of Air symbolised by a green crescent bowl. The pastel sketch of the stupa is here to give the image context of the green crescent of air.
Tuesday 28 November 2023
Saturday 11 November 2023
Dancers
A theme I return to from time to time - here are two sketches.
Going for a combination of stillness and dynamism.
Friday 6 October 2023
Golden Bird
This painting is inspired by Wallace Steven’s “Of Mere Being” and reflects my response to Steven’s evocation of the space of the mind beyond reason and thought. The poem has a number of visual images: a golden bird on a palm, bronze decor, fire fangled plumage, and the mysterious spaces in the mind beyond the last thought. I've juxtaposed a literal figurative image with abstract forms. It is a difficult painting to photograph:the actual painting is more subtle and luminous.