Category Archives: paint overs

graffiti and vandalism

I haven’t quite known how to share my recent works and talk about them here up till now. I’m having a bit of ‘breakdown’ perhaps. Not an illness. Just in painting terms. I am experimenting with pouring paint. Over older dry paintings. It’s hard to explain why. Or what it means. I hope this aggressive, bold use of strong colour, with forms forming themselves, directed by gravity and manipulated by the tilt of the canvas or a blot with tissue, will lead somewhere. In the meantime maybe they can say something for themselves.

On Facebook a friend commented that I am bringing graffiti and vandalism into the studio. Yes! I think the friend is right. Sometimes we need to force a change. To fight off the status quo.

pale yellow with blues

These 2 are each 60cm square and have undergone a change of heart, or a facelift or a renaissance! Formerly they were darker and mostly orange and quite ‘loud’ with a title to reflect that mood : ‘Tolerate chaos’- the title taken from the 10 well known painting rules of the Bay artist, Richard Diebenkorn.

Now they are calmer and paler, with a new title, ‘Formerly chaos’, perhaps with a nod to us being in control of our moods along with our palette if we so choose!


These 2 are a bit bigger, at 80cm square. They have had a similar transformation using a pale palette of pale ochres, yellows and some very pale blue. Their former title was ‘Oceans, a tipping point’ – part of a series of 5 canvases. They haven’t got new individual names yet 


Thus one is ‘Musing’, also 80cm square plus frame, painted 2 years ago on my furst residency at Stiwdio Maelor in Corris in Wales and then exhibited at a group show at Terre Verte Gallery in Cornwall. Home now from her adventures


These 2, ‘Sunshine 1&2’ have also just returned from Cornwall and are also each 80cm square plus frame

a light touch

I’m using a lot of light mixes for layering over some older works. Favouring ochres, yellows, pale blues laid over the deeper and bolder tones underneath. This is creating some depth and I’m adding further texture with light lines and scrapes using solvent followed by a palette knife





without you can’t get in

It started with a search for something to paint over because I’ve run out of canvas.

I chose these 2 as they are rather boring and not too textured or lumpy

They are each 70 x 50cm on board

I laid down some first layers and decided to turn them sideways

I was thinking about people out on the street during these cold winter nights and started to make some loose marks with solvent and a palette knife. I have some new gold Winsor and Newton oil. Added some of that, mixed with wax, with a roller. The shapes are clumsy and awkward

The song from Paul Simon’s new album, called wristband, the third verse running through my head. The bit about riots and how not having a wristband to get you in the door becomes a metaphor for the excluded and disenfranchised. Thinking about the election of Trump. And Brexit.

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=40220

Add more colour. Roll over and obliterate most of the scraped marks. Make some new marks with a graphite stick

Thinking too about the desperate situation in Aleppo. And David Wolfe’s moving and horifying before and after photos on Facebook 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1290315790990889&id=100000374406030
It’s not about pretty pictures

What is it about? Painting? What do we do it for? Why? How? Is there any point?

Darker and deeper

More confusing

I don’t know. But I keep painting

(Header image is another stage on the journey, not the finished image – I signed it then changed my mind)

colour and boundaries

I’m having some fun with process, using old unsuccessful painted canvasses to re-work, amend or completely paint over

These 2 canvases, each 80cm sq, were initially very different abstract paintings, but both had quite a lot of structure and quite large areas with earth and ochre colours. I have kept some of the initial areas but built up additional structures and much more detail

Here are the two separately:

And here is another, larger canvas. This one is 80 x 120cm and has much more tentative amendments – might not be quite finished yet