The Daily Studies

For the past month or so I have been spending a part of almost every day outside, painting directly from nature and sharing these paintings on my second instagram page @the_daily_studies 

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 I have been responding to a strong urge to connect directly with nature, to dissolve the line between my body and nature. I was also pulled by a desire to immerse myself in the rigour and discipline as well as the simple joy of observational painting. I was classically trained, so in many ways this is an obvious way to approach my painting practice, but early on in my journey as an artist I lost the love for this kind observational of work - I wanted to paint from within my being, not just copy scenes that appeared outside. Over the years and through a lot of experimentation, play, trial and error I have gently found my way back to this space and it feels completely different this time. Standing on a beach, feet wet, wind in my face, carefully noticing each subtle colour shift in the sea and sky. Then mixing the colours faithfully, making marks like votive offerings. Each stroke somehow sharpening my vision, dissolving that invisible line between my body and the sensation of nature. This process has been quietly miraculous and the effect has been to deepen and somehow simultaneously lighten my experience of the world. I see in richer colour, I notice more. It has become like a meditation and has already begun to feed the rest of my studio practice too. I think I will carry on..

 

You can find today’s study, as well as of the other available works here.  Or head over to @the_daily_studies where I have the full archive of over 750 of these daily works.