A return to drawing practice in the early part of the year 2016. I made four or five cloud studies, then some tiny studies of black smoke rising from the ocean, none of which I kept, to my regret. The smoke studies were made on tissue paper and were extremely delicate.
There followed a series of looking glass egg drawings, but I did not keep those, either. Thereafter, on newly discovered creamy Lokta paper I made a series of drawings of black mountains, again tiny; I did not, and do not, seem able to work on a larger scale, although the cloud studies shown above are 22" by 30", as was customary for me. I found, and find something liberating in working small, which may seem odd; perhaps usually it is the other way around. But tearing down a sheet of Lokta paper into eight small pieces and working intently theron, I feel safe and able to begin to explore once more. I remember visiting an exhibition of William Blake's watercolours with my beloved father and being amazed at how tiny they were; both my father and myself had expected monumental works. It was my youngest sister who explained how working small could be a liberation, and after some thought, I understood why she had said that, although I am not sure that I know how to articulate this.
Certainly, I began working in a very different way when I began to work small. Perhaps I have been liberated from the hitherto ever attendant fear of failure.
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