think BIG.

Shifts in Blue, Mixed Media on paper, 2010

Do you remember when you were a kid on holidays and someone having the bright idea of pulling the MEGA puzzle from the shelf and deciding that it would be the BEST family activity to attempt?? 

I do. It always ended in tears and with the puzzle being thrown into a million pieces on the floor!!

Now... do you remember trying to piece that puzzle back together again on your own...?

Well - this was the dilemma that was facing me a month or so ago when a lovely family from Sydney commissioned me to create two MASSIVE paintings for them, using artworks that I had created over two years ago as inspiration. In my mind those paintings were on a shelf, in a box, and I wasn't sure if I could and recreate them again!

In a post from last week I talked about my excitement at being asked to do this commission, and how I had begun to sketch my ideas out for the first canvas. Well this week im knee deep in paint and Ive moved my sketches onto canvas. Yay! 

Im pretty happy with how its going. So now its time to tackle the second artwork for them... which I have to mention is 3m long and over 1m wide! Im talking HUGE!! And I have to admit ive been a little nervous about this one. Not only will it be the biggest work I have ever painted, but it will be in the style of a series of artworks I completed over 2 years ago.... 

Hence the puzzle!

So how do you rewind the mind and create a new piece when you've moved on from that series artworks? Well.... you pull out your images, you take a deep breath and you start to remember the marks, gestures, colours and ideas that sparked those artworks years ago... 

and then let go. 

The new artworks will never be the same. 

You've changed. You're artwork and influences have changed. 

But what remains is the intention and the feeling that you put behind them.... 

In this post ive shown you some of the works that my Sydney family loved while they tried to work out what they wanted on their walls. These artworks are from The Hummingbird Series I completed at The Primrose Studio in 2010... and they have now become the inspiration for the 3m painting. 

Mosaic Movements, mixed media on wood, 2010

Large scale sketches on paper, 2010

Large scale drawing on paper at The Pop Up Space, 2012

So after looking, feeling, thinking, observing and remembering all those works from 2010, I set up my materials at The Pop Up, and started to create this large scale drawing on paper. 

Now its not exactly like the artworks from 2010.... and its not exactly like the artworks from the solo exhibition this year... 

Its somewhere in between.

It has its own personality.

And that feels right. 

Now back to finishing the first canvas, so this drawing can become a massive 3m painting.... !

Wish me luck!