I find composition quite challenging. There are so many disparate elements jostling for space inside my head. When I try to get these down on paper they don’t always sit comfortably together.

One of the main take-aways from this artist residency in Oatlands has been my growing confidence in resolving compositional structures. When things don’t work out I have had to make executive decisions. Do I keep persevering with something that isn’t working or take the plunge, tear it up and start again.

This happened several times but in the end I was happy with the results. I wanted to challenge myself with the long banner format of the kozo papers I bought in Japan. I laid out what I thought was a good composition but when i took a photo of it I knew it didn’t work. I had two distinct motifs vying for attention. They each needed their own space.

I went for a walk and dropped into a cafe for a cup of coffee. As I was leaving I noticed the house across the road which had lamps on the gate which I liked. I took a couple of photos and went back to the studio.

I looked at my banner composition again. I took a deep breath and tore the doors out as I had already spent an hour painting the white lace on the curtains. tI then placed them centre stage on a square sheet of kozo paper. That worked and the rest was easy.

I took motifs from the house with the lamp I saw and combined them into the new piece with torn up fragments of a wallpaper painting I had done but didn’t like.

I created a new painting referencing the numerous ‘little libraries’ I had seen outside some houses as I was walking around the town. That’s a story for another day.

Meanwhile I used the remaining fragments of the wallpaper on my final artwork. It also was a challenge which I had trouble resolving. The main motif were the cobblestones I had made charcoal rubbings of in the old mill stables. (The mill has now been turned into a distillery). I loved the large stones all jumbling together and thought they would look good as the background to a fireplace. But I couldn’t make the composition work.

Before I went to bed that night I thought ‘what if the rocks came tumbling down in front of the fireplace’. So I painted them over the fireplace surround. I was still unsure if it worked so I took a photo and posted it on Instagram sharing my doubts. Feedback was positive!

One friend said “amazing how a little time & space can have things… falling into place”. Aha! That became the title of the work. Moral of the story - sometimes you have to walk away. When you look with fresh eyes at the problem, eventually things do indeed fall into place.