There's nothing like getting right away from both studio and home for a few days to encourage returning with "a fresh eye".
After a weeks break I returned to my art pod today where the walls were still crammed with paintings made over the last six weeks or so.
Interestingly when I left I was still living with them yet on my return it was almost at once startlingly obvious what I wanted to take down and what I wanted to continue living with.
The selection is small - whittled down from ten to just four which includes one from my previous body of work "A Cornish Hedgerow" two "sketches" made pre "Walking The Land" and one painting from that course. Having taken a break and looking at them again as if for the first time it is clear to me why I have made this selection and what they all have in common: Linearity, space, energy, movement, immediacy, a wide variety of mark making & paint application and what I would describe as a "drawn" element. Also somewhere in there is captured for me the "essence" of the subject matter ( this is something that I need to think more about)
What on return appeared rather stodgy after a little weeding out with my newly refreshed eye has now become something much more exciting offering clear possibilities for future work.
