I made this piece as a large scale experiment to see what it would look like to depict a memory. I chose to paint the lake at Highfields Park. Rather than a realistic rendering of a place, I wanted the piece to portray the emotion beyond its surface appearance.
I started off with paper (just basic cartridge paper for the purposes of the experiment) and coated the whole surface in an acrylic primer. I then applied layers of sepia coloured ink, whilst focussing on remaining loose and letting the image emerge. I then used chalk to add more texture and detail. I kept the memory in mind as clearly as I could throughout the whole process, and I found that my mind's eye wanted to hone in on certain details, like how the surface of the water looked and where the light lay in the sky; and didn't pay much attention at all to others, like the details of the trees in the background.
Particularly whilst I was drawing the reflected light on the water at the front, I was looking completely at the memory in my mind's eye, rather than the paper in front of me, and I felt that I was directly connected to it. This felt really compelling and really felt like I was creating a successful piece for this reason. However, when I started to receive feedback from members of the studio, pretty much all of them said that they couldn't tell what it was that I had painted, and much of the comments were of people trying to guess the subject and describing what they had thought it was at first. I think that this detracted from the purpose of the piece.
