I remember this one. I had Yayoi Kusama on my mind, and I was filling my sketchbook pages with spiralling lines of polka dots and circles. Some in ascending order of size, others descending. Some snaked their way across the pages of my book in monochromatic fashion, others skipped and hopped through a rainbow of colours.
It was therapeutic. I would zone out while painting those circles, one by one, trying to make each one just slightly smaller or bigger than the previous one, moving from one shade to the next.
Yayoi Kusama on my mind.
Gimme all the colours!
Then I got sick of circles and polka dots.
So I painted squares instead.
I was also sick of the orderliness of the shapes gradually ascending or descending in size, and I wanted some negative space.
So I ended up with this:
Drifting
I had a new addition to my paints at the time, and I used it for this painting. It was Daniel Smith’s Undersea Green; a colour that, for me, conjures images of scaly reptiles, seaweed swaying in the ocean depths, and humid mangrove swamps. If you’re a cat owner, like me, it may also remind you of one of the more wonderful perks of having a pet cat: hairball vomit.
But I’m pretty sure you’d agree that “Undersea Green” is a much better name than “Cat Vomit”, or “Hairball”.
And I can promise you I was NOT thinking of my cat’s occasional gifts to us when I was painting this.