Keeping up ‘play’

Play is an essential part of my work

It’s so easy and tempting to become bogged down with detail, but by keeping my pencil (or pen) moving, my hand fluid, and my paintbrush light the element of play always finds its way back to me.

Last week, we were lucky enough to get away into the sunshine for a week.

It was a wonderful holiday (as I think you can see)

Returning to my studio, this painting practically fell onto my canvas.

I love to work on these narrative paintings, they are born of lived experiences and magical memories.

In 2016 I made a collection of these paintings, celebrating Suffolk, more specifically the coast around me. These paintings told stories of family picnics on the beach, days out of discovery, and the joy of settling into our new surroundings.

All these paintings have since been sold.

Narrative paintings are exactly as they say - they tell stories. Lived stories that connect us. I once made a little narrative painting of us having a car-picnic on a rainy day in howling wind. A lovely memory that many of us have experienced in the past.

See what I mean about connection?

I have been asked if I have any of these paintings for sale just now and sadly I don’t. These paintings seem to happen and I believe that’s what keeps them special. I don’t make prints of them, preferring to keep them as original one-off paintings only.

Much love, Sam x