Pebble Painting

I based this painting on patterns found within a tiny fragment of pebble gathered on the banks of a river. At the time I was basing a series of work on fragments of bark, lichen, pebble and seed that at first sight could seem commonplace but to me assumed a special significance due to their relationship to a landscape I know well and have walked through for most of my life. I was interested in the idea of identifying landscapes within fragments, in enlarging textures and forms found within them to a monumental scale. This painting uses colours I identified within the landscape through photographing and drawing from it. To make this work, I marked the original patterns found with the pebble onto the canvas using washes of paint and charcoal before nearly obliterating all but key shapes through working into the canvas with rhythmic and colourful mark-making, aiming to evoke a sense of atmosphere and create an impactful abstract painting. This work plays with ideas of microscopic/ macroscopic landscape: to me it is simultaneously a painting of a pebble and more expansively a portrait of a landscape important to me.