Campaspe Artists Studio Trail

I create abstract work, primarily in watercolour. And in the last year or so, I’ve ventured into collage. Both mediums offer the opportunity to create work using layers of transparency. For me, there’s something compelling about transparency, about seeing beneath the surface, seeing what lies beneath.

I’m drawn to watercolour because it’s such a playful medium. Its fluidity and unpredictability are always a source of delight. I love the anticipation of seeing how wet pools of colour – I always work very wet – have dried overnight. I’m often surprised.

I’ve had a long obsession with paper. Maybe I was a stationer in a previous life? The beautiful textures of cotton watercolour papers were part of the attraction to that medium. Now I’m working with collage, I’m collecting and creating a enormous stockpile of textured and transparent papers. God help me – my studio is overflowing!

I work intuitively without sketching ideas or trying to conceptualise an outcome. Letting the work evolve is particularly useful when working with watercolours – they are known for having a mind of their own! I usually begin with a series of very wet washes, preferring organic forms and a limited palette. I almost always finish a work by adding marks with liquid watercolour and a dip pen, or with graphite in pencil or crayon form. These create movement within and across the watercolour forms. I think of them like the lines of text in a poem, or tracks meandering through a landscape. And I feel these marks help in making for a more cohesive composition.

In my collage work, I use tissue papers mostly. I colour and make marks on the tissue paper with acrylic paint or inks by scribbling, stamping, and gel-plate printing. I combine the tissue papers with pieces of paper torn or cut from old books. And I’ve become fond of old brown dressmakers’ pattern paper – the lines and text add interest to the work.