‘Votive Offerings – This Precious Moment‘ is an artwork I have created to celebrate 10 years since I set up my studio at Ladybank Railway Station. It consists of a series of watercolour paintings of small wild flower posies. I’ll be showing them as an installation of unframed paintings at my Open Studios event on the 4th,5th and 6th May 2019, where they will be available for sale individually.
The posies depicted are ones I made (and left) around Fife, where I live, last summer. The images below illustrate the little posies left on a wall, at the bottom of a tree, beside a road. I photographed each posy, noting it’s scale using a ruler or the lens cap of my camera (6cm diameter) and then use the photograph to work from in the studio. I also keep a notebook of observations to help me catch the feeling or thoughts evoked at the time, as I paint each posy later on. In the process of painting them I wanted to capture a sense of lightness, of delicacy, of connection, of transience.
The images below show how I have developed my painting of one of these posies, working from the image on my computer 10 months after I made the posy. This is ‘Votive Offering No. 127 – This Precious Moment (Dog Rose and Pink Campion)’.
I have painted about 30 small paintings for this artwork, celebrating the time I have spent at my studio in Ladybank Railway Station, it has been such a great place to be.