Keep Going!

Ugh, when everything goes wrong, keep going! When it has got so bad there is only one way - it can only get better. Somehow there is always a turning point and it shows up from the deepest of despair and that's where you find the magic. Finding my way, not quite there yet.

Things haven’t really gone to plan at all. Was there a plan? Not exactly but still. I had a totally different painting but similar in colour ways, much more muted than normal, I’m trying to get the feeling of winter and thinking what that means to me. When I think of winter I think of the snowy woods and mountains in Norway. The year I lived in Lillehammer and seeing the Northern Lights. I think of times visiting my parents and going to catch golden hour on Paradise Beach, in the Oslo Fjord. I think of my favourite park, just down the road, Vigeland’s park with his sculptures of life, in crystal clear skies and also in a blizzard. I also think of Edvard Munch and his painting style that sweeps colour and emotion as it wraps around the Norwegian landscape. And then there is the skiing and skating of course.

So where do I start, as always, I take some paint brushes on a journey, they have a conversation across the page. I had this idea I’d do some photo transfers of some of my photos of Norway, that didn’t work so then I thought about paint some snow loaded trees. - I didn’t even try. I got faster, faster in putting more paint on. Annoyingly I kind of like what I had, just before I got too carried away and painted all over. So I got this feeling wipe over me, it’s kind of like a dread or disappointment an all consuming sadness. This isn’t how it is meant to be but I know now its just part of my process, in continuing I drop all the thoughts of what I’m trying to achieve and just do something. Only then can I enjoy the process of creating, that urgent immediate craving and desire for more, because right now nothing else matters.

Emma Hill