The idea of a four-piece abstraction came from one of Tracy Verdugo‘s courses. She introduced me to a lot of new acrylic paint supplies and encouraged me to splash, dribble and swoosh areas of gorgeous colour in new ways!
One of Tracy Verdugo’s ideas was to take a photo reference (in each case one of mine) and choose four areas of it to remake in a more abstract way, dealing with forms and colours, always my favourite part of any art practice!
From realism to abstraction in four steps
In the first place, the Brancaster four-piece abstraction started with the beautiful decaying wood of an old boat, seen fading away in Brancaster Marsh. Such a typical scene of where sea meets freshwater. Or anywhere boats retire to. I was true to the brown, pale beige, white of the wood but jazzed up the background with colourful stencils.
In the same fashion, the honeysuckle hung over one of the ancient brick walls of the Ely Cathedral grounds lent itself to the same treatment. The pink trumpets of the flowers were appealing, although one quadrant considers the walls and the dark green inner parts of a honeysuckle plant. The original now hangs in a new home.
Similarly, the Oasis House is in a community-run oasis farming area not far from the wet and windy city of Essaouira. You don’t have to go far from the coastline to find the countryside as arid as many other parts of Morocco. So an oasis is a precious thing. I’m not sure the house was actually pink, to be fair. I think I wanted it to echo the rich magenta of the prickly pears on the (I think non-native) cacti that grow all over the place, llike brambles do in an English hedgerow.