The Pattern?

21-03-2024

At the time of writing I am just over a year and a half into working from my studio space in Battersea. I have been trying my best to ‘enjoy the process’ however most of the way through I have been longing for some kind of consistency. Initially I thought I’d found that with the mini canvases pictured below but I came to realise that in my strive to find a consistent pattern I’d condensed a free flowing idea down to a pretty rigid structure. The format was both stress inducing and perhaps more importantly, on reflection I feel the pattern didn’t look so much like military camouflage.

After taking a moment to look back through my instagram and some of my earlier photos It started to dawn on me that I kind of had it right when I first got into the studio. Annoying. Really annoying. Although one step back two steps forward is maybe applicable in this situation. Anyway, I started fresh in a new style of notepad. This one had little dots in it so I didn’t have to hand draw all my grids. Wish I’d thought of that sooner. I enlarged everything and sketched with the thought of working on larger 100 x 100 cm canvases. Couldn’t tell you why but for some reason I had always been reluctant to work on squares. Again. Annoying, as squares quickly became a format that I quite enjoyed.