Just wanted to share some of my Tao Pines which are inspired by the pines in the Yellow mountains in China. Now off to Devon and Torrington where the next 'Drawing Down the Feminine' exhibition will take place. Do come along to the opening on Wednesday evening at the Plough Arts Centre if you're in the vicinity.
Would be lovely to see you there!

Below are some of the creatures I'm working on at moment. These are monprints of an old stick I found outside with the knot and end forming something looking like an eye and a mouth.
I do like finding old bits of wood with creature like faces on them. I also prefer keeping them as 'creatures' rather than pinning them down to a specific animal, this leaves more space for imagination. Reminds me of something Virginia Wolf wrote in a letter to Roger Fry '...directly when I'm told what a thing means, it becomes hateful to me'.
Of course I can't say for sure if she was onto the same thing here but it clarified feelings I'd had about explaining in words what my work is about. I could say my work is mainly mythical creatures, trees and lanscapes in a Zen-palette on paper, but I would prefer people to experience it for themselves as it does somehow loose the synergy when pinned down into words. Sometimes things are unboxable!

Just though I'd share a photo of a piece I'm working on at the moment, which I thought I had completly abandoned, but which I'm now back playing with. I say 'playing' as I find this keeps me in a more of an open and creative mind.
When I work on a painting I find it incredibly useful to photograph it as I go as a way of standing back from it and get an idea of what to do to it next. Looking at the photograph rather than the real thing somehow flattens it and mergers it for me so I can see it better as a whole.
This images are of two creatures (maybe hares) watching the heavens with their backs to a pine tree, on one side there is a comet in the sky and on the other the full moon. Not sure of the meaning, but somehow I'm reluctant to dig too much into putting words on meaning as this can make an image loose its sense of mystery. For me images and art can be appreciated on a more intuitive level of our consciousness and are all the more powerful sensed rather than understood.

At the moment I'm busy preparing for our next Drawing Down the Feminine group exhibition at Torrington Art Centre in Devon. After a very exciting show at the Newlyn Art Gallery in March being part of the Transition weeks, mainly showing work in progress, this show will have a more finished traditional approach. Hence I'm waiting for a call from the framers (very exciting!).
Do come and see us in Torrington next week, for details see http://www.theploughartscentre.org.uk/

'Windless swell, all tones of grey, Thunder of crashing waves'