Inspiration....

It's hard to say what inspires me to paint. Or why. All of my paintings are completely unplanned and occur out of my mind.... as someone once said to me, no pencils were harmed in the creation of this artwork, as I never ever draw out a painting. If I need direction I just use the brush.

Last week I was watching this Mallard duckling in a chalk stream and just loved the colours and the movement of the water. Replicating this without it becoming a photo-painting, or something lacking movement is always a risk.

One of my favourite ways of painting with acrylics is using a rubber roller, as it produces absolutely stunning marbling effects close up, and texture. The paint is literally squirted onto the paper or canvas and then more is added depending on what I'm trying to adjust to get the tone and feel of the painting right. It's a bit of a delicate procedure as it has to be fast, but because the paint is being mixed on the paper, knowing when to stop before it all becomes muddy brown is the trick.

And so here's my chalk stream, done with rollers. As you can see it's in portrait view, why? well because streams generally are horizontal in aspect, so being an abstract, I like the thought of having a vertical painting of water. Below the painting is detail of the marbling. Click to enlarge.