Dulwich Walks
A Cure For Artists Block (written for Amelia Magazine)
Creating my ‘Dulwich Walks’
exhibition was a journey that led me along many paths.
I had 10 months to explore the
various different routes I could take and took full advantage of the diversions
on offer, including frequent visits to the ever popular province of
Procrastination.
After the summer of 2013 I
began painting recollections of wet coastal walks in Wales and West Sussex, but
by November this came to a full stop as the memories unexpectedly dried up.
Searching for inspiration I
wondered down the garden path and discovered a new passion for winter flowers,
enjoying their sparseness and delicacy, I painted what ever I could find. Even
in late December there were Daisies, and Pink Geraniums somehow surviving the
endless downpours. But white roses, I couldn’t find, making me want them all
the more.
Eventually I found one in a
local park looking suitably vulnerable and bedraggled and committed the heinous
crime of stealing it. The guilt of this act ruined everything and to this day
the studio has the remains of this flower, still unpainted, it’s dried withered
petals a constant reminder of my pretentious folly.
A new direction was needed and
almost to repay any offended municipal gardens I changed to painting parks. I
found kittiwakes and even cormorants there, making it seem like a return to the
coast, only with city rather than sea as a backdrop.
As walking in Peckham Rye or
Dulwich park was part of my daily routine, gathering inspiration was easy.
Everyday something different would catch my eye, an unusual configuration of
seagulls and goal posts, fitness groups adopting bizarre postures or just an
unusual light effect.
The theme of walking seemed to
bring the show together. It was a common factor in the pictures, either for
providing subject matter or stimulating ideas. Charles Dickens famously walked
the London streets for hours to help unlock his creative flow, but taking a
walk is not only a well known cure for writers block, in my experience it works
for artists too.
