Abstract painting process

Setting a direction

I am working on some new small paintings. The way I paint involves hope and optimism.

I have no idea how these paintings will develop or what they will become. I just have to trust that I can navigate my way through, one decision at a time. There is a paradox in the painting process I find, it involves both a ‘letting go’ and the tenacity of ‘keeping going’.

Before I began this series, I spent time thinking about the kind of paintings I wanted to create.

I looked back at my sketchbooks and created some studies, thinking about how I wanted these new works to feel. I wrote down a few guiding words; antique embroidery, weird and wonderful vessels, pattern and lines, hidden treasure, spaciousness coupled with complexity.

There is no one way to build a painting

There is no one way to build a painting. My process suits me. I build up layer after layer of richness, colour and paint. Holding my intentions loosely. Responding to what is. Letting go of the plans and perhaps heading in a different direction entirely. I never know how my paintings will turn out until they are finished. I quite enjoy this uncertainty. And these paintings took an unexpected direction…

The layered process

Painting in layers is both a process of discovery and concealment. The ability to add and obscure makes painting with acrylics a dance between flow and frustration. Often, the final painting only really reveals itself in the later stages.

I find that a painting tends to evolve in distinct phases:

1. Play and possibility

The early layers are free and experimental. I tend to start with a single colour ground, just a single colour covering the whole board. Then I add paint marks and coloured shapes. Knowing that only small remnants of these layers may show in the finished work allows for boldness and spontaneity.

2. The messy middle

The painting process can feel like a tussle at this stage. The composition starts to emerge, but the painting oscillates between looking promising and looking lost. It often feels like a wrangle, I have to paint over sections I love to find a composition that works. Some days, I leave the studio feeling like the paintings are worse than when I started, some days everything flows beautifully. This stage always seems to require tenacity and hope.

3. Refinement and resolution

I keep turning up and making one decision after another. Gradually, clarity arrives. The painting begins to make sense, and I shift into refining details, making small adjustments until everything feels in place.

The obstacle is the way

As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

I welcome the difficult bits and the problem solving involved in creating a painting. The grit makes the pearl. I don’t really want the painting process to always feel easy and simple. I don’t want to know how a painting will turn out before I’ve even started. Sometimes I like the challenge of working through obstacles. The reward is in the overcoming of the difficult bits and developing something that feels good to me.

Capturing wisdom

I take time to reflect as I work and once the paintings are complete. Taking stock. Capturing wisdom. Understanding my own creative process strengthens my intuition and deepens my artistic practice. Here are some questions I ask myself, perhaps they will be helpful to you too:

• What did I learn?

• What worked?

• What do I want to remember for next time?

• What did I enjoy?

• What are my observations on the process?

• What advice do I want to give myself?

To be continued…

Painting is not always a smooth journey, but the good bits and the problem solving are what makes it a meaningful endeavour. It’s in the layers, both the literal ones and in those of experience that we find satisfaction, that we create art that feels like our own, that means something to us.

I will come back and show you how these paintings turned out. I also intend to do another series which is closer to the original indigo and white studies, but let’s see what actually happens…

Materials

These paintings are still works in progress, but were made on 30cm x 30cm wooden panels from Cowling and Wilcox using a variety of paint including: Sennelier Heavy Body Paint, Daler and Rowney FW Ink and Liquitex Soft Body Paint

One page sketchbooks

In this video I show you how to make a simple sketchbook from one piece of paper and a way to tidy them up by gluing and cutting.

I make these simple one page sketchbooks very frequently and have for many years. There is something extremely tactile and pleasing about their intimate scale. I like the fact that it’s just one piece of paper, no pressure, no expectations, it feels expansive and freeing.

The great thing is that you can make them from any paper you have, I happen to have a lot of heavy watercolour paper (350gsm) and I use that but you can use what you have to hand, you could even use cheap computer paper. These sketchbooks end up with 8 sides, so the end result will always be an eighth of the size of the paper you started with…

I sometimes begin the art work before the page is folded into a sketchbook, there is something about the surprising and unexpected compositions that come with the folding which I enjoy.

I’ve made them from abandoned drawings or from scrap pieces of paper, reusing and recycling and making something from not very much. I might take a painting that hasn’t quite worked and use it for the start of one of these art books, adding collage, painting over sections, turning the unloved into the loved.

Thank you to artist Sue Brown for the idea of gluing these sketchbooks. you can of course just make them by folding and one cut if you want to keep them super simple (the gluing helps if you are using thicker paper and want to neaten them up, because thick paper doesn’t fold as well and so the end result can get a little wonky.)

Understanding our art by writing

I’m a great believer in writing things down. Sometimes the act of putting pen to paper can turn the intangible into the tangible. Asking ourselves questions and writing down our answers can help us to articulate our intentions and ideas to ourselves. It can help us find clarity when we are a little unclear. Our answers can also serve as a reminder and prompt along the way.

A sketchbook made from one piece of paper

One page sketchbooks

In this video I share how I use one page sketchbooks as art note books.

You can learn how to make a one page sketchbook here if you would like to.

Writing to understand

Writing about our art can help us to organise our thoughts, collect and capture ideas and can give us ideas when we are feeling under-inspired. Here are some questions you may like to use as prompts for your own writing:

• What am I interested in exploring?

• How do I want my art to feel?

• What processes do I want to explore?

• What do I want to start/stop doing in my art making?

• What artist’s are currently calling to me and why?

• What art materials do I want to use?

• What advice do I need to give myself?

• What can I do to nurture my creativity?

I like to keep adding to my one page notebook as ideas occur to me, I try and capture those fleeting observations before they escape. It creates a useful resource, a map of inspiration and ideas…

The beauty of things

In this video I share some insight into a recent series of paintings. This collection of abstract still-life paintings is inspired by some of the objects and things in my home…

“These artworks are loosely inspired by some of the objects and artefacts in my life and home. The objects I find beautiful and the things that have meaning to me.”

HELEN WELLS

Inspired by beautiful things…

I’m fascinated by the objects we travel through life with. Objects that we invite into our lives, into our homes and houses and our connection to those objects. These paintings celebrate that bond and are loosely inspired by some of the things in my home…and evolved from ideas I developed in my sketchbooks.

My sketchbooks are where everything I make starts. They are the birthplace of all my art. They are where my ideas percolate and develop, collect and gather. My sketchbooks are where I experiment and where my ideas unfurl and take shape. They are where I get to understand myself as an artist and where I get to understand the things that excite me and make me curious…

My hope is that these abstract still life paintings bring a moment of joy and invite a smile. They are bold, bright and exuberant…

Sketchbook pages

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Original Painting: Ornaments and Objects, 50cm x 50cm

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Original Painting: Cosy Corner, 50cm x 50cm

Inside the art journal of Frida Kahlo

THE DIARY OF FRIDA KAHLO: AN INTIMATE SELF PORTRAIT

In this video I take you inside the art journal or visual diary of the artist Frida Kahlo. I share the book: The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self Portrait published in 1995 by Abradale Press an in-print of Abrams Books, with subsequent reprints in later years. You can read more about this book on the publisher’s website, it is still in print today…

It’s a book which I come back to time and again.

Frida Kahlo, one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century, was born in Mexico in 1907 and is famous for her self-portraits, characterised by vibrant colours and powerful symbolic imagery,

This book fully replicates 170 pages of her visual journal or sketchbook. She worked in the book for the last ten years of her life between circa 1945 and 1955 and it gives a intimate insight into the woman and the artist.

INTROSPECTION AND EXPRESSION

Her diary or sketchbook, I think, reflects both a deep introspection and bold self-expression. She has clearly used this book as a means of exploring her inner thoughts, emotions, and personal experiences, her identity and her place in the world.

IMAGERY AND SYMBOLISM

It’s packed with symbolic imagery, metaphors, personal, political, religious and cultural iconography all patch-worked together.

Pages from Frida Kahlo’s visual diary

EXPLORATION AND EXPERIMENTATION

It also shows all sorts of artistic exploration and experimentation, she mixes up various techniques, styles, and art materials. She combines elements of realism, surrealism with symbols and motifs to create a visually rich, and at times bewildering and beguiling whole.

I think she is exploring her personal pain and suffering and yet it also clearly demonstrates her magnificent wit, playful spirit and vibrancy…

Her journal feels like a significant work of self-expression, resilience and creativity…and I think it’s just fascinating.

Making collages to inspire paintings

In this video I share a process I use to help me find new ideas and compositions…

CREATING COLLAGES

I make photocopies of things I’ve created, such as pages in my sketchbook, I collect together abandoned drawings, and offcuts and oddments from my art practice and I use all these pieces and fragments to create temporary collages which I then photograph.

The photographs are then used to inspire further drawings and paintings and then those drawings and paintings might be used to inspire something else…its a creative stepping stone.

A temporary collage made from old drawings, and photocopies of things I’ve created

FOLLOWING A BREADCRUMB TRAIL

Art making is often like following a breadcrumb trail through the forest to an unknown destination… I never quite know which path will lead to something magical and which will lead to a dead-end. I like the fact that making art can feel like a journey into the unknown...

A painting in my sketchbook (left) inspired by a collage made from pieces of an old magazine (right).

COLLAGES MADE FROM MAGAZINES

If you don’t have offcuts of your own art to use to create a collage, you could try with pieces cut from a magazine.

Above is a small collage I’ve created by cutting interesting bits and bobs out of a magazine.

Creating a composition from random found shapes and pieces is like constructing a puzzle… it involves lots of questioning and thought and is not always as easy as it may appear. ‘Does this look balanced? Is this interesting? Is it too busy? Is it too boring? Does it work as a unified whole? The sort of questions you need to ask when creating any art work are tested by this type of excercise. In all these experiments, I’m seeking discoveries, learnings, revelations…flexing my creative muscles.

I believe most artist’s have a seeker’s soul. Looking for fragments of ideas, trying to figure things out, attempting to join the dots, make connections, piecing things together to better understand themselves and the world around them. Trying to find out who they are as artists and how they want their art to look, feel and be in that moment…

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Collages made from magazines

Music credit: Don’t Give up on Love by Ludlow via Epidemic Sound

In this video I share a small creative exercise: making collages from our imagination and an old magazine.

SIMPLE BUT NOT EASY

This kind of simple art exercise or challenge is an important part of my art journey. The premise is simple but the execution is not always easy. It involves thought and problem solving and working within constraints and trying to make something from not very much…

REFINING SKILLS

Just like any other discipline, art requires practice to refine skills, to develop self awareness and expand our zones of comfort. I enjoy incorporating small challenges into my art making, whatever the outcome may be. Being relaxed about the outcome is key, I think.

HAPPY WITH AN AVERAGE OUTCOME

I’ve now learned to be happy with not always loving what I create, particularly if iI’m just exploring or doing exercises.

I know that making average stuff is just part of art making. It’s actually a really important part…. It has taken me a long time to understand this though.

I used to think that everything I created must look lovely. That if I created something ugly it meant I wasn’t a good enough artist. I was insecure in my own abilities and wanted my work to somehow prove to myself that I was indeed good enough. This desire for perfection did not help me make better art, it added a weight of expectation and too much pressure. It just caused me unneccessary suffering along the way and a feeling of stuck-ness.

Putting too much significance on the outcome and wanting something to look good meant I became stuck doing the things I knew I could do. It meant that the joy of art making was always wedded to the outcome. It also meant that I didn’t allow myself to take any risks or push myself. Now I fully accept that not everything I create will work out how I want it to and actually if it always does I’m probably playing it too safe. Ofcourse I still want to make beautiful art that feels good to me, but I believe that creating art that I really love comes from creating lots of art, sometimes successful and sometimes not so much….

Abstract art: progression and process

Today I wanted to share a little insight about how my paintings progress and develop. I thought I’d show you some abstract paintings I’m currently working on at different stages of un-dress and un-doneness.

ALIGN THE PROCESS WITH THE INTENTION

Every artist has a different process and it’s important that the process you choose to use or develop reflects the things you are interested in. Our processes are a vital part of the mix, they are part of our art decision making, part of how we want our art to feel and be.

There is no one way to paint a painting. I try and ensure that the way I paint a painting emphasises and aligns with my sensibilities and reflects how I want my art to feel…

So for example I love delightful details, layers of complexity, rich maximalist combinations, I want my art to be bright and playful but also have a depth and complexity. I enjoy exuberance AND control. I like a sense of seeking and finding. I enjoy my paintings when they feel like they have a history, like they are interesting objects with a past. I want to celebrate beauty in the mundane. And because I have really thought about all this, I am better able to develop art making processes which give me these results.

TWO QUESTIONS

So in a nutshell it is useful to think “what are my paintings about?” and “how can my processes support and align with this?”

Art inspirations and fascinations

Creating art is a process of unpacking the things in life which fascinate; a wonderful way to explore obsessions and better understand curiosities. Creativity is a process of discovery and exploration.

By making art, I have discovered more about my self and the world I inhabit.

It has encouraged me to meet myself on the page, to become clearer on what moves me, motivates me, interests me and lights me up.  To follow the threads of my curiosity and weave them together. 

EXTERNAL WORLD

The process of creating art has ignited multiple and diverse love affairs for ancient textiles, seaweed, fossils, found patterns, painted ceramics, trees roots, sacred geometry, weeds, patterned rugs, reflections on water, hand embroidery, folk art, iridescence....

It has connected me to tthe world around me in a tangible life-enriching way. I notice more of what I am curious and fascinated by.

INTERNAL WORLD

It has also prompted me to tune-in to my own sensibilities. Why do I create art in the way that I do? What is my art about? I would say my art is about delightful details, beauty in the mundane, seeking and finding, layers of complexity, reveling in colour, fragments of wonder and awe, exuberance and control, moments of joy, combinations and juxtapositions, threads through time…

I want my art to feel expressive, joyful, combine exuberance with quietness, be bright, playful, interesting, complex.This is also how I want my life to feel, what excites me in my art is what I seek in my life and what I seek in my art is what excites me in life..

Drawing and exploring

In this video I share a little of my art process when creating something new. I like to draw and explore with different materials and approaches, think through doing… gradually unpack an idea. Get stuck in and see where it takes me.

Abstract art and art books

MUSIC CREDIT: If i wrote you a song, by Melanie Bell via Epidemic Sound

In this video I share a little of what I am up to in my art practice at the moment, painting on paper, the art books I’m currently reading and loving and a few recent adventures within my sketchbook…

ART BOOKS:

John Walker, The Blue Series, Messums Art Gallery, Catalogue, published in 2023

David Mankin, Remembering in Paint by Kate Reeve Edwards, published by Samson & Company 2021

My favorite types of sketchbook

WHY I LOVE SKETCHBOOKS

Sketchbooks are a place where I make art for myself. The pages are not necessarily filled with ‘sketches,’ the art is not necessarily a draft for something more important, although it can be, I think of my sketchbooks as a place where I experiment and express myself. Sketchbooks are where I gather together the hints, whispers and clues of my artistic practice. Sketchbooks are the filing cabinets for my art making. They are a place to collect and curate small delights and large curiosities. They are a place to make for the joy of creating, a place to find a path through, problem solve, follow a thread. They are both a homecoming and an adventure…

FILLING UP A SKETCHBOOK

I used to abandon sketchbooks after a few pages. Now I try to always fill them up, I’ve found that the more art is in a book the more inspiring I find it to work in, it gains a momentum, I often prefer what I’ve made in the second half of the book. There is something about a full sketchbook that gives me pride, the fact I am able to keep going and fill one up, it feels like an achievement.

I still find the first few pages of a sketchbook to be a little daunting though, sometimes I don’t even start on the first page, but rather I start a few pages in and circle back to fill in those first few pages when the sketchbook has found its footing…and I’m feeling more assured.

MY FAVOURITE TYPES OF SKETCHBOOK

Here are the types of sketchbook I use the most, these are just my personal preferences, the ones I like to use or buy.

1. VENEZIA BOOK FROM FABRIANO

I use different sketchbooks for different things and tend to have more than one on the go at once. For my main studio sketchbook I use a Venezia Book from Fabriano, it is my favourite. I like the paper which is 200gsm or 90lbs in weight, I use the version that is 23cm x 30 cm `which lays flat. It’s a good size for me and can take quite a lot of collage material and wet paint.

2. STILLMAN & BIRN ZETA RANGE

I buy the square version of this sketchbook which has beautiful smooth 270gsm paper and is 19cm x 19cm.

3. POCKET SIZE CONCERTINA SKETCHBOOK FROM SEAWHITE OF BRIGHTON

This is an accordion or concertina sketchbook made from long folded pieces of paper. These are small, portable and quick to fill as they are only 17.5cm x 9cm. The paper isn’t that thick but because the book is constructed from two long sheets of paper joined together it feels thicker than its 140gsm paper weight. It comes with a hard carrying case and I find it great for working outside or carrying about in my bag. It has two long pieces of paper, folded into pages and I enjoy working across these expanded surfaces and folding the pages in and out to see what I have created with new eyes.

4.DALER ROWNEY A3 ARTIST’S HARD BACK SKETCHBOOK

These hard backed sketchbooks are really large, it’s an A3 size which means a double page spread is A2. The paper is smooth acid free 160gsm and it contains 48 sheets or 48 double page spreads.

5. HANDMADE AND HOMEMADE ART BOOKS

As part of my overall sketchbook practice I love making all sorts of quick handmade, small art books and sketchbooks. I often make them from offcuts and oddments and abandoned and unloved pages and scrap paper and they become something new and interesting. To me a small homespun sketchbook feels quite liberating and joyful to create in. The stakes are low and so I perhaps create with less weight of expectation and more experimentation…

Artist research: questions and answers

I am lucky and honoured to get lots of questions from students so here is an artist research page to help answer some questions.

Describe your work:

My artwork is sometimes intuitive and intricate and sometimes bold and colourful. It often features motifs from nature or the world around me. I use expressive mark making to create abstract pieces which feature repetition and rhythm, layers of complexity and organic forms. I’m fascinated by the interplay of colours, shapes and patterns. My paintings are rarely envisioned but develop over days as I respond to the materials and the marks on the page, creating complex layer pieces full of colour and detail.

What are you inspired by?

I’m mesmerized by the beauty, colour and pattern in the natural world and in the world around me. I’ll frequently have a love affair with something where I become obsessed with it for a while; from snow flake structures, to patterns on shells, or the colours and patterns on fish scales, or antique Indian textiles, or bird feathers or butterfly wings, or the patterns on maps… I also have some magpie tendencies and am rather drawn to the glittering and glinting, iridescent or luminous… I try and seek inspiration everywhere - I will go out and walk in nature or around my home with my camera - seeking small details and interesting patterns and shapes.

What processes do you use to create your art?

I experiment in my sketchbooks and will sometimes take a seed of an idea from these and use it as a springboard for a larger work or series of work. My sketchbooks are the foundation of my artistic practice, they are where I try things out, experiment and reflect on my curiosities and fascinations.

My sketchbooks allow me to gather themes and fragments of ideas that I may want to explore more, I can look back on my sketchbooks and see whispers of ideas forming and recurring motifs and fascinations emerging. I rarely copy something from my sketchbook into a larger piece, but my sketchbook is where ideas, motifs, art material mixes ‘develop’ and then these recurring themes turn up in my paintings. I don’t ever really plan out a painting, I have a tiny starting part, a colour or a shape or a detail and I begin and respond to what emerges.

How did you develop your art style?

We all have a unique way of seeing and interpreting the world and our art is a reflection on this. My style developed from making lots of art, reflecting on the art I had made and getting curious about the aspects of it that excited me… and doing more of that. I believe my art style is always evolving and developing, it isn’t a landing spot, it’s a conversation that continues and evolves.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

As a child, I was always drawing. I loved spending hours creating elaborate and intricate patterns from my imagination. I used to get through so much paper that my dad started to buy me large rolls of wallpaper lining-paper to keep up with my insatiable demand for more paper. I used to have a large box in which I collected shiny and patterned papers, from sweet wrappers, pages torn from magazines, bits of shiny wrapping paper. I loved my “special paper” box, I used to like tipping it on the floor and seeing how the different patterns and colours combined with each other. So, drawing and painting was something which came innately to me as a child. But I only became a full-time artist later in life. I took a rather circuitous route to get here as a profession and it is perhaps all the sweeter for it.

Why do you make art?

* It’s fulfilling to make something from nothing

* When I’m in flow it can be meditative and absorbing to work with my hands

* I enjoy the problem solving, overcoming the obstacles, the satisfaction from keeping going when something isn’t working and finding a way to resolve it in some way

* It helps me to see the world with new and curious eyes, it brings more wonder and awe into my life

* I relish the sensory pleasure, the materials, the tactile nature of art supplies and paper

* It brings joy, colour and pattern into my life

* It helps me to respond to and interpret my interior world and the world around me

* I notice more, pay more attention to details and become more fascinated by random and unexpected beauty

* I uncover, discover and explore my interests and come up with new ones

* I enjoy the learning and the development, trying new things, exploring new techniques, the sense of possibility

* It is a way to find myself, express myself and be myself

* It feels nourishing and good for my soul and wellbeing

* Art making helps me to connect to myself and the world around me

* It is a way to understand who I am and what I am interested in. My art is my response to being in the world. It is an ongoing conversation with myself which unfurls and develops…

Where do you work?

I am very lucky to have two rooms at the top of our house in Hastings. I’ve painted the walls and floor white to maximize the light. Having painted wooden floors also means I can roll back the rugs and make a real mess without any worries. I love rugs and have them everywhere, bright bursts of colour and pattern that sing to me. So, although the walls and floor of my space are white, the space is far from minimalist.

I love collecting weird and wonderful objects and picking up old or unusual objects in junk shops. My place is scattered with old tins, patterned ceramics, pebbles from the beach, old books and interesting textiles.

The house is half way up a hill, so one of the rooms has an amazing view of the town and sky. I just love this view and find the ever changing colours and patterns of the clouds a great inspiration. Having two rooms, means I can move around depending on the time of day – leave artworks to dry, whilst packing others.

Where do you seek inspiration?

Sometimes being an artist is like being a visual adventurer. I am always on the lookout for colours, patterns, tiny inspirations that I can collect, expand upon and use in my paintings. Sometimes these come through active searching, I might take a walk on the beach or in nature to actively seek-out some inspiration, looking at the details of plants and the shapes of the leaves, patterns on pebbles, or the way the water creates lines in the sand.

What art materials do you use?

I love to mix art supplies and mix mediums. I like to experiment, explore and combine different art materials to create layers of interest and variety. I am always trying out new mixes and combinations to see what resonates with me. I love watercolour with fine-liner pen. Acrylic paint with photocopies. White ink pen over black ink. I enjoy using unexpected art making tools such as twigs or pieces of discarded ephemera.

When and where were you born?

I was born in London in 1975.