I’ve always found the short winter days more difficult, like many people I feel drained more often and my mood suffers from the reduced sunlight. No spring is upon us I’m happier, more energetic and feel freer and more creative. It’s amazing that we are subject to the seasons even in the modern age. This link between the physical world and our mental well-being fascinates me and I feel I need a constant reminder, that a period of low mood could be caused by something so simple. This is why I wanted to share this artwork with you today.

As with many of my artworks, I started with a graphite drawing, the realist portrait is created in full and, as it’s such a long process to create this part, gives plenty of time for inspiration for the more abstract layers. I create the other layers separately, ranging from semi-abstract silhouettes of the same face to purely abstract pieces, focused on colour and different mark-making. I’ll collage sections digitally on Photoshop to try many combinations, it’s only at this stage that I’ll decide which sections will go with one another as I’ll create many different layers and work on several different faces simultaneously. I’ll then rip, cut and sew the sections, often changing the design and detouring from the digital mock-up as ideas develop. The text and the symbols are added last and link back to the loose sketches I’ll create when initially trying to get concepts from my head onto paper. I want each section to have. a very different feel, the crisp, precise nature of the graphite sketch, the. colourful freedom of the abstract - reflecting each layer of our being, mind, body, spirit, the physical world around us, and the world of ideas existing only in our heads.

The Sun Will Set You Free