Tuesday, 3 March 2026

Staring at the sky.

'Staring at the sky'

I went to the Yoko Ono retrospective last year at the Tate Modern and one of her quotes stayed with me. 

'All my life, I have been in love with the sky. Even when everything was falling apart around me , the sky was always there for me.'

As a child I used to spend hours staring at the sky, lying in on the grass, on  long car or train journeys or staring out of windows. When you are a child you have nothing really but the sky is free and it is there for everyone. I spent so much time day dreaming, making pictures out of the clouds and staring in wonder. I used to watch the clouds with my daughter when she as small, cuddled up on a hammock for whole afternoons in a care free summer holiday.  I found the night sky particularly magical as I would wonder what space looked like, what the stars were like and wonder about the moon's changing face. The moon almost became a friend and it followed me around when we took trips when the evenings drew in. I would leave the curtains open  so the moon would shine into my bedroom long after I was meant to be asleep. Even now I smile when I see the moon, I can't help myself. My daughter chose our stars when she was little and I always look for them. I breathe easier outside and feel stronger and taller under a blue sky.

'The night sky'

 

Playing on a wet day.

'Ripples'

Over the last dew grim, wet weeks I have been playing around with shapes, colours and different painting techniques. Quite often having a playful experimental approach and not taking things so seriously gets the best results. It's also nice to get lost and escape reality for a while.

'Emerging'