Gail Shaw

With each artist statement (there have been many!) I find something new to say. This one is no different but it’s the most important one because it clarifies why I changed from being a representational watercolourist to a mixed media abstract painter.

The skill factor. After over thirty years of painting representational subjects in transparent watercolour I realised that if you paint the same things, many hundreds of times, you are bound to develop your skills to a professional degree. My tutors from way back then are now internationally recognised.  However they are still painting the same subjects; cows in paddocks, rain-streaked city streets, chefs in steaming kitchens. They are sublime masters of an unpredictable medium. And I now find them dead boring. 

Covid brought many changes. For me it was studying intensely, working intuitively and abstractly In acrylic paint and collage on paper or wood substrate.  The rules are the same. But the unpredictability is fascinating. It is a journey where I am continually searching for an authentic voice. Painting, if you like, from the inside out, rather than the other way around.