I posted a painting recently on the gallery and a few of the comments touched on the subject of painting style. Funnily enough, I have been giving some thought lately to my style of painting. Looking back over the past three year's work, I can definitely see a change in my style. If I am honest I think the best painting I have ever done is the one I have used to illustrate this blog. It is called Nautical Kaleidoscope, done about three years ago, and I look at it and wonder how I managed to produce such a loose and colourful painting. I am not sure I could repeat this painting now as I think the execution of Nautical Kaleidoscope owed more to my inexperience with watercolour than to expert handling of it. I just sloshed the paint on and really didn't have much idea what it was going to do and the majority of the painting is actually the result of a series of happy accidents. As I have moved on, the way I paint has been inexorably changing. I still try to leave the pigments to work their own magic, but I have more control and have much more of a clear idea where I am trying to go with a painting. I still look for and embrace the happy accidents, but in a way I have lost my innocence. I seem to have tidied my paintings up a bit, lost some of the wild splashing about in them, and am now concentrating much more of the variety of tone and colour within the shapes I am painting. I have become much more fascinated by that aspect and the sight of a boat's hull or a long slab of roof just makes me want to inject as much colour variation as I can without making the viewer dizzy. When mulling about my style lately, I decided that I should return to my 'roots' (i.e. paintings like Nautical Kaleidoscope) but I actually find that I can't do it. It would seem that style is one of those things that is constantly fluid and moving due a process of experience and learning and you can't turn the clock back. However, a dilemma - people get to admire a style and don't want to see a change in it. For example, I am not a great fan of Picasso, but I did like the paintings he did in his Blue Period. I would have rather liked Picasso to stick to that style and not move on. Great for me as the viewer, but even if Picasso could have done it I doubt it would have done much for him as an artist. I am now coming to the conclusion that style just has to change with experience and you should be happy when it evolves to encompass your increasing skill level and experience. I think that is why the name of this blog is particularly apt as it really is a journey and change is the name of the game.