The Leap




As I worked my way up the glen.  A fleeting glimpse.  A movement in the undergrowth.  A shadow and a flash of white.

I love following the deer trods.  They lead to wild places.  Small tunnels open out into little secret glades or guide you along a hillside with tiny narrow tracks.

This canvas is one of the largest I've tackled - a metre square, and the idea was just a fleeting image quickly receding into the dusty corners of my mind, so I had to work fast.  Fast, so that my heart rate felt like I was running.  My new broad brush made fast marks, bold and with full arm movement.  It was exhilarating but exhausting, and after 18 hours of virtually non-stop mark-making I ground to a halt.  I should have stopped sooner for my health but I couldn't.  I tried it but my mind was racing, terrified of "losing the moment", of "thinking too much", and of going "blank".

It took a while to recover!

1 comment:

sharon young said...

This is stunning, Helen, I love the energy in it, and the immediacy of the moment shines through brilliantly.