Exploring and enjoying colour

I have been playing with colour and paint in my sketchbook, making messy kaleidoscopes of colour.

This process has been freeing and surprisingly illuminating and I wanted to share some of it with you. These colour explorations have not been about technique, finished composition or overthinking; but more about curiosity and experience.

Colour interactions

The painted pages in my sketchbook explore colour relationships, colour combinations and colour interactions.

Building up pages of paint smears, smudges, blobs, spots and stripes of colour to explore how different colours work in relationship to each other. Not worrying about the overall compositon, just thinking about colour relationships. Not worrying how the pages look as a whole, but searching for interesting and exciting colour interactions and moments.

A sketchbook is a great place to run free and try things out, to explore, experiment and go a little wild, to discover things about colour which we can then integrate into future creations or more considered paintings.

The pages I have created as a whole may look messy and confused, but there are fascinating colour interactions hidden amongst the chaos.

I’ve some taken some close up, detail photographs of a few of the colour combinations I spotted within the pages.

Details from my painted colourful sketchbook pages

Details from my painted colourful sketchbook pages

Details from my painted colourful sketchbook pages

Details from my painted colourful sketchbook pages

Details from my painted colourful sketchbook pages

Details from my painted colourful sketchbook pages

Details from my painted colourful sketchbook pages

Details from my painted colourful sketchbook pages

Colours are relative

Colours are relative. They change depending on the colours they are next to and the best way to find interesting colour combinations that work together is often to experiment and experience.

Colour is emotional

Colour is emotional. Our colour sense is deeply personal. The colours we personally prefer are often linked to individual experiences, memories and things from our own life. Paying attention to the different colour interactions that you love and noticing how colours make you feel can be a powerful part of developing art which feels personal to you.

Helen Frankenthaler the American abstract expressionist said about colour:

"When I choose a colour it’s not because of scientific theory. It comes from observation, from feeling, from the soul.”

A finished painting inspired by colour references in my sketchbook

The colour references in my sketchbook that helped me as I worked on these painting

A few simple ways to explore colour

If you’d like to experiment with colour here are a few ideas you may like to try:

• Create colourful pages of stripes, spots or squares

  Using a ‘ready made’ compositional structure such as stripes or spots, can help you explore a whole range of colour ideas within a very defined parameter. They don’t have to be neat and precise.

• Seek interesting moments of colour

  My painted pages may look confusing as a whole but they contain many interesting colourful moments. Fill a page full of colourful daubs and smears and then use your phone or camera to seek interesting colourful compositions or combinations within the whole.

• Create colour moods

  Choose a word or emotion i.e. restful, vibrant, tender, and mix colours that match how that specific word feels to you. It’s a beautiful way to connect with your intuition and stretch your colour vocabulary.

Permission to make a mess granted

Let’s release the idea that colour swatching has to be neat and orderly. Let the paint drip. Let colours clash. Paint over something. Try something that feels wrong. Try colours you don’t immediately love. Some of the best breakthroughs happen when we give ourselves permission to mess it up.

Courage and curiousity

Colour theory is helpful, but so is intuition and experience. A willingness to experiment, observe, and respond to what excites you can lead you in interesting directions. Learning through experimentation can be invaluable and illuminating.

Your sketchbook is the perfect place for this kind of colour adventure. No pressure. No rules. Just colour, curiosity, and a little bit of courage.

Artists mentioned in the video:

• Patrick Heron

• Amy Sillman

• Helen Frankenthaler
  
  

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A gentle approach to your creativity

I have been reminded that there is a quiet magic in allowing our art to unfold at its own pace.

Rushing to the finish line can be counter productive. I’m often in a hurry to get somewhere and sometimes I just need to remind myself to amble, take my time, slow down.

I’d been working on some paintings. In the last video I shared some of their progress and said they were nearly finished. I left them for a few days to gain some objectivity.

When I came back to them I realised they were very far from finished. I was guilty of trying to rush to completion. I needed to work on them more slowly. I should let them unfurl at a quieter pace. Resist the urge to push ahead too quickly. I should just let them take as long as they take, no expectations, no time constraints. Be less impatient.

And that’s exaclty what I did. I slowed my pace right down and spent many more enjoyable hours on the paintings…over several weeks.

In a world that often encourages speed and productivity, I believe there is deep wisdom to be found in slowing down, in approaching our creativity with softness and gentleness. What if, instead of pushing, we let our art unfurl, gently, quietly, at its own pace.

Flow not force

Creativity is not about force; it is about flow.

I often have to check and change my expectations. Get out of my own way. Approach my work as an ongoing conversation. Make a mark. Observe. Listen. Let the next move reveal itself. Accept that the paintings will take as long as they will take.

Listening for wisdom

When we allow ourselves more space and time for reflection, we create room for our inner voice to emerge. It can be tempting to rush to the finish line. Often our deepest creative instincts whisper quietly, they emerge slowly, when given enough space, they do not shout.

Nurturing creativity like a loving parent

Our creativity is tender, it flourishes with gentle encouragement. I often think we should consider our creativity as we would a young child, offering reassurance, delighting in small discoveries, providing space for exploration, space to try things, replacing pressure and expectation with kindness and compassion.

The beauty of slow

There is no rush. The advice I needed to give myself and am now sharing with you is; Let your art unfurl, slowly and beautifully. Trust in its natural timing. Trust in yourself.

Interesting things and links

1. In the video I share the book Painting as a Last Resort, about artist Mathew Wong and Vincent Van Gough, written by Joost van der Hoeven, Kenny Schachter, Richard Schiff and John Yau, published by Thames and Hudson, 2024

2. The Van Gough Museum in Amsterdam has a great page of info and videos about the exhibition which was on in 2024. You can also see the virtual tour of the Mathew Wong exhibition on Youtube.

3. One of the artist’s Matthew Wong was influenced by was Brenda Goodman. You can see some of her work on the website of the Pamela Salisbury Gallery in New York

4. Wong was also influenced by the work of Katherine Bradford. You can read a brilliant interview about Katherine’s work on the website of authour Rosie Osbourne

Sold out

Echoes of Before Three

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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

Layering ideas

There’s something magical about flipping back through old sketchbooks. The pages are a container for our past ideas, experiments, and creative selves, some ideas are fully realised, others are only partially explored and developed.

What if these pages contained the sign posts to something entirely new?

Small sketchbooks made from scraps and abandoned pages

One of my favourite creative exercises is revisiting old sketchbooks and creations and weaving together different ideas, techniques, and themes to create something new. Layering together ideas as a way of honouring past explorations while pushing into new territory.

If you’re feeling stuck, uninspired, or just curious to see where your work can go, you may like to try this for yourself.

Gather and reflect

Start by pulling out a few of your older sketchbooks or art works, especially the ones you haven’t looked at in a while. Consider your work without judgment. Instead of critiquing, observe with curiosity. What stands out? Are there patterns, motifs, or color combinations that still excite you? Maybe there’s an old idea or composition that didn’t quite work at the time but feels full of potential now.

Hunting for clues

Look for ideas to pick and mix, mix and match. Are there any sketches, techniques, or themes that you could combine together that perhaps you wouldn’t normally put together. Maybe you have a page of delicate floral studies and another filled with bold, abstract mark-making. What happens if you created something new which combines these two ideas? Or perhaps there’s a color palette from one thing that could breathe new life into a completely different subject.

Try making a list of interesting pairings, that you gather from your own creations:

• Watercolor washes + intricate pen line-work

• Geometric collage shapes + loose gestural painting

• Drawn details over bold botanical shapes

• A sketch from years ago + a technique you’ve recently mastered

Pick and mix experiments

Now it’s time to play. Create a new piece or sketchbook page inspired by what you have found. Let go of expectations and approach it as an experiment. Maybe it turns into a finished piece, or maybe it’s just a stepping stone toward something else, but either way, it moves you forward.

Here are some more suggestions of ways to mix things up:

• Redraw an old sketch using a completely different medium

• Redraw an old sketch using a completely different set of colours

• Take a tiny detail from an old sketch and scale it up into a full composition.

• Concept stack. Take three completely different ideas from different sketchbook pages, or previous creations and combine them into something new.

Let it evolve

Creativity thrives on curiosity, so don’t be afraid to push the boundaries a little. What happens if you introduce an unexpected element? What if you challenge yourself to work in a size or format you’ve never tried before? Sometimes, the most exciting breakthroughs happen when we step up to and outside of, our comfort zones.

The beauty of looking back

Revisiting old work isn’t about repeating the past necessarily, it’s about mining it for lost treasure and using it as a bridge to something new.

Every sketchbook holds layers of who we were as artists at different points in time, and when we mix those layers together, we often uncover something surprising.

So, the next time you feel stuck, flip through your own work with fresh eyes. The inspiration you need might already be waiting for you in what you have already created.

Our previous work can give us a sign post to our future creations…

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A love letter to sketchbooks

There’s no one right way to do anything, and that includes keeping a sketchbook.

My sketchbooks feel like a motley gang of unruly but beloved friends, each one different, with its own quirks and oddities. And that’s exactly why I love them, not in spite of their weirdness, but because of it.

You know that saying about friends: “They come into your life for a season, a reason, or a lifetime”?

I think it applies to art-making and sketchbooks too. I look back at certain sketchbooks and remember those seasons of life so vividly, times when a sketchbook was an escape from life’s upheaval, a place of quiet creativity or times when it was simply a place of carefree art adventure.

Sketchbooks: A powerful creative tool

A sketchbook can be one of the most powerful creative tools an artist possesses.

For me, they’ve been life-changing. They’ve helped me move from hesitation to confidence, from creative uncertainty to finding my artistic voice. My sketchbooks have been a springboard into a more colorful and creative life. If you’ve ever considered keeping a sketchbook, here are a few reasons why you may like to start or re-start.

Making art for yourself

There is something deeply nourishing about making art just for yourself. Experimenting in a sketchbook can lift the spirits and bring immense joy. The simple act of transforming a blank page into something alive with meaning, color, and line is rewarding in itself. A sketchbook is a private place where we can have a creative conversation with ourselves. For me, it has been where I have learnt to be less critical and judgemental of myself and my art.

So many pages, so many opportunities, so much possibility has helped me loosen my attachment to how any one thing turns out…it just doesn’t matter.

A place to begin

Sketchbooks are where we find out about our own art sensibilities, not where we show up fully formed. They are part of the journey, not the final destination.

When we start working in a sketchbook, it helps to embrace a beginner’s mindset—to stay open, curious, and willing to explore. It’s okay to make mistakes, things that haven’t worked teach us something. We don’t need to expect too much from ourselves. I love this idea from Vincent Van Gogh:

“I am always doing what I can’t do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”

A place to learn and grow

In a world obsessed with outcomes, a sketchbook offers a space for discovery. It allows us to explore our interests, experiment with techniques, develop and flex the ways in which we make art. A sketchbook is where we learn what excites us creatively, where we test ideas, push our boundaries, refine our process, and reflect on our evolving art practice.

A place to practice

It is called an art practice for a reason, a sketchbook is a great place to practice and track the progression of an idea, skill or approach.

A filing cabinet of ideas

A sketchbook is more than just a collection of drawings—it’s a filing cabinet for your creativity. It gathers fragments of inspiration, allowing us to flip through pages and spot recurring patterns, themes, and ideas. Over time, our sketchbooks reveal what captivates us, helping us refine our artistic identity.

Begin where you are

A sketchbook is a companion, a teacher, a playground.

It doesn’t demand perfection. It invites exploration. It reminds us that creativity is not about flawless execution but about showing up, trying and growing.

So, if you’ve ever hesitated to start a sketchbook, let this be your sign: Begin.

Fill the pages with your ideas, your experiments, your mistakes, and your joy. Let it be a space where your creativity can run wild, unfurl and be unjudged.

You never know where it might take you.

Types of sketchbook

Here are some of the sketchbooks I like, but sketchbooks are a personal preference and come in so many different shapes, sizes and varieties, the sketchbook that is right for me, may not be right for you.

The best sketchbook to use is always the one you already own.

1. The Venezia Book from Fabriano

2. Stillman & Birn, Zeta Range

3. The Ebony Artist Book from Daler Rowney

4. Dylusions Creative Journal Large from Ranger

5. Seawhite of Brighton Pocket Concertina

6. Talens Art Creation Sketchbooks

   (Some of these links are affiliate links, if you buy something through them, I might earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. I only ever share the products that I actually use. )
   

Art books, sketchbooks & finding small moments of joy

Despite a few tears, this is about joy. Seeking joy, in beautiful art books, in other’s wisdom, in our own wisdom, in making art and in sketchbooks.

It is about joy as a rebellious and defiant decision, when life feels a little joyless.

I don’t often talk about the fact that I’ve been ill and have/had long Covid, (I’m a natural optimist and I prefer to focus in a different direction). But, the path back to good health has felt like climbing an unscalable mountain at times. It has been a heartbreaking experience, which has undone me and unravelled me.

And yet…

I am beginning to see that it has also given me a clearer perspective, a new lens through which to look at the world. The fragility and precariousness of wellness, the difficulty, the pain, the dark night of the soul…has had a galvanising effect on me.

I have realised that joy is not an accidental fleeting feeling I wait around for, it is a decision, something to be sought and pursued. Struggle and difficulty have made me, search for, seek out and savour more joyful moments.

And in this seeking I have found them.

The act of noticing and pursing joy has been life enriching and perhaps life changing. I really pay attention to the things I find joyful. It involves both an active engagement with the world and a quiet connection with self.

When times are difficult or dark, it may sound entirely naive to speak of joy, but I believe it is in exactly these times, that we need to prioritise it, notice it, soak it up, bolster our reserve.

Joy can co-exist within difficulty. It is not about fake positivity, denying reality or pretending things are not as they are. It can be found in the noticing, in the paying attention, looking in the right direction.

I find joy in drawing in my sketchbook, in a newly sharpened pencil, in looking through an art book, in spending a little time outside, in a beautifully crafted coffee cup, in a soft comfy jumper, in a poem that knows how I feel, in thick woollen socks, in staring out of the window, in seeing a plant defiantly growing up a fence, in laughing with friends, in a big generous hug, in the taste of a juicy tangerine, in listening to a long-lost song from my childhood...

Perhaps after reading this I can encourage you to notice more tiny moments of joy for yourself today…it can be a beautiful decision and a kind practice when life feels hard.

“The goal is not just to create joy for ourselves but, to be a reservoir of joy, an oasis of peace, a pool of serenity that can ripple out to all those around you. Joy is in fact quite contagious. As is love, compassion, and generosity. So being more joyful is not just about having more fun. We’re talking about a more empathic, more empowered, even more spiritual state of mind that is totally engaged with the world.”

— Dalai Lama, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

Books I mention in this video

• Small Pleasures, By The School of Life, 2016

• Exhibition Catalogues by Gillian Ayres

• Exhibition Catalogue from The Redfern Gallery, Florence Hutchings, The Dressing Room 2024

• Color Chart, A History by Anne Varichon, Princeton Press 2024

• Bloom, Art Flowers and Emotions by Rachel Giles, Tate Publishing 2021

“Joy and happiness are often used interchangeably. However, happiness technically refers to the pleasurable feelings (emotions) that result from a situation, experience, or objects, whereas joy is a state of mind that can be found even in times of grief or uncertainty. Thus, we can work on cultivating joy independent of our circumstances. ”

— Stephanie Collier, MD, MPH, Hardvard Medical School

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