9 FEBRUARY

It has been a howling, windy week, and the three old sash windows in my work room have been shuddering and rattling like wild skeletons as the side of the house was buffeted by storm Ciara. The turmoil outside perhaps led me to select muted, calm colours for work.
It has been a while since I made a close-toned still life. I have always loved still life painting; I always used oils at art school, where I learnt painting in the traditional Scottish manner with a slightly modernist twist using tilted perspective and beautiful colour harmonies. At the moment I am working digitally on illustrations for that children's book I keep mentioning, so the images shown here were created using textures created earlier in the week for some of the characters and their environment.

This pattern emerged from a texture made (without giving too much away) for an animal in the story. It forms the animal's skin, but I could see the pattern emerging quite clearly alongside the animal's character as I worked on him. I played with colour-ways for the pattern and was pleased with these two - earth and mineral, my favourites! When I have time I would like to refine them, I already have ideas that would look great on textiles for curtains. Or tote bags. Or cushion covers. Or blankets - I think you know where I'm going.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!