Acrylic on grey paper, four studies. Reflecting on the changes that have taken place over the past year since leaving Trinidad and coming to live in the UK. Talking to myself because words come harder than ever.
The best thing has been the climate, especially the seasons, although the summer was uncomfortably hot and seemed to go on for ever. I had the fan on round the clock.
Spring was joyful, it just blew my mind experiencing it after so long. I moved into my half of a studio space in an ASC building in Hawks Road, Kingston, in the middle of April. I was awed by the cherry trees in blossom in the suburban gardens on the 12-minute walk from Norbiton station. I tried to make some art about them. A few painted studies looked promising and then for some reason I embarked on a complicated screenprint with five colours. Because of very limited washout facilities at Hawks Road I used the drawing fluid method. The result was disappointing. I have my own screens and basic tools and had thought I could do a series in that way but abandoned it after the first one because of the practical problems.
The best thing has been the climate, especially the seasons, although the summer was uncomfortably hot and seemed to go on for ever. I had the fan on round the clock.
Spring was joyful, it just blew my mind experiencing it after so long. I moved into my half of a studio space in an ASC building in Hawks Road, Kingston, in the middle of April. I was awed by the cherry trees in blossom in the suburban gardens on the 12-minute walk from Norbiton station. I tried to make some art about them. A few painted studies looked promising and then for some reason I embarked on a complicated screenprint with five colours. Because of very limited washout facilities at Hawks Road I used the drawing fluid method. The result was disappointing. I have my own screens and basic tools and had thought I could do a series in that way but abandoned it after the first one because of the practical problems.
work in progress
Final prints
I put them away somewhere, don't know where they are now. Since then I've left the Hawks Road studio and have joined a printmaking studio which has screenprinting facilities as well as presses for etching and other techniques/media and which members can use as needed.
I've been realizing that the work I do depends mainly on what I see. And having made this big move from tropical Trinidad to temperate London everything is different, all the ordinary sights and sounds and smells; the flowers, the birds, the weather, the trees, the people, the roads. Many things I recognize from forty years ago, with pleasure -- oak trees and acorns for instance, and the small white daisies that grow in grass. In fact, nearly everything, especially natural things because those were the things I was most keen on while growing up.
Most of the time it's either too cold or too hot to work outside so I take a lot of photos and I'm trying to develop a system for storing and retrieving them.
I've been realizing that the work I do depends mainly on what I see. And having made this big move from tropical Trinidad to temperate London everything is different, all the ordinary sights and sounds and smells; the flowers, the birds, the weather, the trees, the people, the roads. Many things I recognize from forty years ago, with pleasure -- oak trees and acorns for instance, and the small white daisies that grow in grass. In fact, nearly everything, especially natural things because those were the things I was most keen on while growing up.
Most of the time it's either too cold or too hot to work outside so I take a lot of photos and I'm trying to develop a system for storing and retrieving them.
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