From the vault: Free Of Expectations

This is a mixed-media piece I did reasonably recently (just before I started this blog, actually) called 'Free Of Expectations'. I was having something of a dry spell at the time and a colleague suggested that I try painting a piece using the same approach that I do when I'm just doodling to pass the time. I thought this was a cracking idea, so I did just that. I set up the canvas, cleared my mind of any preconceptions of what I was going to paint and just started applying the paint to the canvas, letting my unconscious mind guide my hand with as little interference from my active thought-processes as possible. I used acrylic paint, ink, oil pastels and even glitter and glue while I created this piece.

I'm quite pleased with the end result and it certainly had the desired effect; it cleared away the mental cobwebs, got rid of the artist's block and triggered a burst of continuous creativity that was partly responsible for the creation of this website and has lasted almost five months now without another dry spell.

Again, I've had lots of people's different interpretations as to the meaning behind this painting and I'm always happy to hear more. One of the biggest kicks I got out of this piece was when my friends started recognising themselves in the silhouettes at the bottom of the canvas.