Things Drift to The Surface
Learning when something needs to rest in the silt for a bit longer and when something is ready to appear
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Since being back in Oxford I’ve realised how much the images and ideas in my mind are influenced by my surroundings. I’ve been spending more time exploring areas that I haven’t been to before, along the river Thames and towards the flooded Port Meadows. The water in the meadows is so flat, and (I think) shallow. It makes me think of expanses, of surfaces, of the fact that everything below is only just submerged, and yet as the water is a flood, everything is comparatively covered.
Flooded Port Meadows, Oxford
Last week was productive in terms of painting output. I’ve had a composition for a painting of a dead swan in my mind for over a month, and I finally managed to start externalising that. It happened relatively easily.
Rowan Briggs Smith painting detail
I’ve also been working on new compositions on paper, and haven’t been sure what I wanted to include, so started with the imagery that’s resonating with me. Trees; roots; branched, bifurcating systems; reflections.