Teaching art continually pushes me to adapt to working with a variety of materials and processes. There is certainly no chance of getting stuck in a rut with my use of media! This can work both ways positively and negatively. It is so easy to be continually lured into temptation by new approaches when really in my own work I should be staying focussed enough to work a process through to its natural conclusion instead of veering off onto multiple other tangents which has happened more times than I can remember!
One of the fun sessions that I like to do with students at the end of a course is acrylic pouring. They always produce lots of exciting samples and really enjoy the process. Of course I demonstrate, join in and bring home my own pile of experiments which I find myself itching to pick up and develop further....
This happened most recently and once again sent me lurching off into a whole new direction not in terms of subject matter but in terms of process. I could clearly recognise rooty organic forms within the compositions of my acrylic pours further enhanced by my instinctive choice of an earthy palette. I decided to experiment further with this mimicry and have found satisfaction with the results.
