Your Artiness - A Cumbrian Tarn

Inspiration for my art comes from all over, but for this new series of paintings it started with a graphic designer called Rex Ray. I chanced upon Rex Ray through my favourite singer David Bowie. Rex had designed a series of album covers for him and this is where my interested started. I loved his artwork in particular his series of work which looks to have flowers and candles in, like the one here.

Back in 2016 I saw an advert on Twitter for the Twitter Art Exhibition that was happening in Britain. The artist was to submit a postcard sized painting and if you sold your little painting all the money from the painting went to a charity the exhibition was supporting. I thought this was a great way to try my new idea and if I liked it. In December 2016 I created The Cumbrian Tarn - Scales Tarn and subsequently early 2017 sent it off to be sold. In July 2017 I decided to up scale the painting and added a little more flora and fauna. 

This series of paintings is an interpretation of the tarns around Cumbria. Should you walk up to take in the view you will not find trees or flowers in such a full, intact, flamboyant manner. ​

Cumbrian Tarn - Scales Tarn
My first painting in the Cumbrian Tarn series depicts Scales Tarn beneath Sharp Edge. In the painting, Blencathra is on the left at the back showing off it's 'Saddle back' as it is known locally, and Sharp Edge in the foreground.
High in the hills these Tarns were created by small glaciers moving and melting, and I've always imaged in the depths of these Tarns fossils could be found. 

Bowscale Tarn - Tarn of the Immortal Fish
According to the poet William Wordsworth and legend there are two immortal fish in Bowscale Tarn, and one of them can speak!?! In the Victoria times the Tarn used to be a popular tourist attraction. Victorian visitors were brought to the Tarn by pony to observe its wild and moody setting.
"And both the undying fish that swim
Through Bowscale-tarn did wait on him;
The pair were servants of his eye.
In their immortality;
And glancing, gleaming, dark or bright,
Moved to and fro, for his delight" ​

People have told me they see lots of inspiration in these paintings, from Aboriginal to a Buddhist art influence. David Bowie once said that, "All art is unstable. It's meaning is not necessarily that implied by the author. There is no authoritative voice. There are only multiple readings". Obviously he was talking about art in general - not my painting.  I just let the painting take me on the journey, it dictated what colour to paint the flora and fauna and where to add in those blocks of colour. Scales Tarn was the first painting I produced on a canvas and the first not to have a bold black line around everything. I well and truly stepped out of my comfort zone.