Heavy rain on sea swell. Multiple exposures of lightning cracking through foggy stormy sky. Irregular chopped waves.*

I used to stare at the tiny tiles in my shower and see endless pictures – faces, animals, ghosts, landscapes. Our builders have trashed all the little pictures, but not before I saved a lot of them.

I have about 800 of them. I’d like to paint them all as part of ‘the square series’. [The square is very appealing to me at the moment.]

Whenever Eckersley’s has a canvas sale I buy some more square canvases. And that’s why I needed to do some renovating—to accommodate the square canvases. I’m not kidding!

There’s a direct relationship here with previous paintings. I’m still exploring water and related themes. But the square series is more about pulling the image out of the tile, whether it be heavy rain on choppy waves, or a rabbit.

* The image above is the actual tile, manipulated in Photoshop (colour, tone and contrast). It’s the sketch that I’ll use to inspire me as I paint.