Sometimes creating artwork is like a fist fight with an invisible critic...but it's worth it - you do some growing n' learn some new moves instead of only repeating old patterns! In this case I am exploring these strange little gardens hidden from time. A little world apart from the hustle and bustle of everyday drudgery. These paintings are loose in the application of paint and quite experimental, the grunt work is in keeping the composition together despite all of the elements at play in the image. 

It's not easy to attempt something that feels so new (especially the process). People keep telling me that it's really not all that different to my other work. I see the resemblance but these pieces are so different on the creating side of things that they feel like a completely different entity. There is a sort of maximalism at play - a space that is jam-packed with varying forms of foliage and rather more mysterious shapes as well. 

My advice to you if you are in this phase of creativity is just to let the painting be itself - at some point you have to relinquish your hold on the idea you have and see where the painting's strengths alreay are and enhance them. I have done some things with these paintings where I experiment with thick globs of paint and loose painterly areas. I don't think I would have "let myself" try this if I wasn't constantly reminding myself that I could easily fix it afterward if it didn't work....wipe it off quickly before it dries OR paint over it. 

I'm making these eccentric garden paintings because in the city we don't always have gardens - but sometimes there is a little space we call our own that serves the same purpose. It can be a balconey garden, the kitchen nook or that chair by the window. Maybe we hang some nice art there or a quotation that reminds us of our particular interests and values. The space gives us solace and reflection. Not everyone has access to a place like this or takes the time to create one. These gardens offer that opportunity - to go to this type of space and enjoy the moment. I hope that people looking at these will have solace, reflection and something unusual, psychadelic, eccentric.