Spring.

Has the thaw begun? I question as the frost seems to have gone - replaced with the dampness that begins to touch on the coming of spring. There is still the wateriness of the colours, an opacity to the grey of the sky and stone and reluctance of the greens to put there heads above the parapet; but there is the sense of the wrinkling of the nose, the squinting of the eyes and all the other actions associated with the shaking off of hibernation.

With the questions come some answers, but normally more questions. Of late I feel I have found something in the paintings I produce - maybe not genius, but... something - something I feel is progress, that speaks? These feelings encourage me to strike out, to press on with the projects I have in mind - both artistic and commercial (and at some point the one is always bothered by the other). 

As I write this, at the start of my fortieth year, everything seems tinged with risk and excitement. The question looms - have I missed my moment, or have I reached my 'natural' age? Whilst I hope and believe it is the latter, the possibility of the former likes to jump up and down in my mind - and seems to be wearing a hideous neon yellow and green lycra combo.

My renewal of purpose, coupled with changes in my work mean I intend to roll out my blogs weekly, extending my ramblings into a longer format - though as with life I can make no promises. As we enter a season tasked with regrowth - but muddled by the push-me-pull-you approach of mankind to the environment, I do seek to find the sprouts of future plans and projects, and perhaps make of them bubble and squeak. Ideas plop and bubble to the surface, transforming into gases - creating a miasma that alters perception; slowly the cloud pulls its faces and what was momentary crystallises into thought. There is something reassuring about this process - the opportunity to take speculation and fragments and to construct a solid frame around them, to create a concept from idle wonderings.

Conversations start to prop words up against each other - buttressed and overlaid with images, colours and serendipity; so it is that experiments, notes, sketches and doodles begin to stretch out and build to new forms, compositions and narratives. Maybe it’s not a thaw, but I’d say it’s definitely time to think again.