Yesterday I featured one of my photographs of the forest floor. I have hundreds of photographs of fallen bark, dried leaves, mossy patches, trees with lichen. The colours and forms of nature, arranged in organic abstracts, captivates me time and time again.

This painting, ‘Forest Floor’ was based on one of these photographs. The process of turning tiny objects into large scale images on a 102cm x 102cm canvas was something I had not attempted before. It required drawing the shapes and planning the proportions. With my intuitive painting artworks, such things are drawn quickly to capture a feeling. With ‘Forest Floor’ the painting had to be true to visual form.

Mapping the Painting

My first challenge was turning a portrait shaped photograph into a square composition. It meant shifting the angle of the leaves, and slightly altering the way the objects intersected with each other. In bringing this out with paint, I focussed on light and shade. Also the different texture of leaves, bark, mossy patches, and twigs.

I enjoyed the puzzle of mark making. It really exercised my brain in a completely different way than pure abstracts do. You’ll probably see more works based on my photographs interspersed between my abstracts and intuitive landscapes. I enjoy them all.

Rather than describe my process, here is a small collage of the work in various stages.

I have only put a small number of my paintings on Bluethumb for sale, and ‘Forest Floor’ is one of them. I feel very proud of it because it is connected so closely to my observations when I walk. Visitors to my studio notice ‘Forest Floor’. It always takes their attention, and sparks conversations about bushland walks. It seems to be a topic most people relate to, and it certainly makes me happy.