When we discussed Ali H’s idea of each of us painting a 6th part to a wider painting I wasn’t sure how this would work; how we could each paint a narrow strip containing houses of our individual interpretation without the whole thing looking a bit weird! It wasn’t after all the kind of thing that I’m used to doing and rather outside my comfort-zone but it has certainly been a challenge and a lot of fun!
Ali H had started with her painting on the left, and Denise had then painted her contribution to the left of my space so I wanted to try and tie in some of the shapes at the edge of her painting with my own to try and make it flow a little, merging here and there.
About forty years ago I painted a picture of a tree-home to some deliberately ambiguous creature or other and I fancied a similar setting for my interpretation of the “house” subject. I thought the tree-house was a good idea but I couldn’t see how I was going to handle all the masses of foliage at the top where everyone else so far had left so much sky showing. One idea often leads to another so I thought: what if the tree was dead, or if it was Winter, and the tree had no leaves on it. My idea developed then as a kind of illustration which might tell a story. What is the significance of the robin? What kind of animal lived here? Why is it for sale? Different people may have different answers to all these questions.
I chose gouache for my bit because it is so forgiving and easy to correct and change. I love the flexibility that gouache gives an artist and I feel pleased with the end result.