This piece started with a random covering of mostly blue shades with some silver. I had a vague idea of wanting to explore markmaking techniques and have some areas covered up or revealed. I wanted the areas that were covered to be lighter patches. This then developed into a desire to make a layered painting with abstract florals and vines with a maximalist style. I wanted to create a piece of art that would translate well as a pattern for print, so i could then design curtains and other textile products for the home.

I used gesso, acrylic paint, acrylic inks, metallic watercolours and a variety of posca pens. Every time i painted a layer or section, i would build up the depth of the colour and sometimes add metallic touches to show the light bouncing off the flowers and vines. I made the vines wind around other aspects so that the layers were more obvious. It also helped to show movement.

The colours i chose are mostly my signature healing colour palette of blues, greens, purple, gold and silver. I did add some pale pink and white this time too to give the illusion of brightness in some places. The outlined droplets worked well for this too.

Each layer was created to overlap the last one so that there was a sense of foreground and background amongst everything going on.

The larger flowers and overall aesthetic were inspired by a memory of writing to my best friend when we were young and she was ill with leukaemia in hospital. I used to have a writing set i specifically used to write to her with, as she bought it for me for Christmas. This painting looks just like it. Once i realised this, i instantly felt like Claire was writing to me through my art. I've always had a psychic ability and received messages from loved ones for most of my life. I really enjoyed adding to this painting each time and to think she was right there beside me as i did it, fills me with gratitude for the work i do now.

One last detail i wanted to apply to this painting was the dragonfly. When i walk in nature, i always see a dragonfly. They usually appear as a warning theres something challenging about to happen. But its also a sign that a loved one is close to guide me. Typically dragonflies represent change especially in the way one understands the meaning of life. So i guess new depths of thought are reached when i go for walks. My brain is very active at these times. It is when i am most creative too. I find it helps a lot when im going through a mental/creative block. I find that dragonflies are pretty good at camouflaging themselves in amongst foliage so i tried to capture that in my work. I love how this turned out!