my practice

Beginning in my garden in Australia in 2014, the most incredible source of material for more than five years. The shapes of the branches of the Eucalypts are so intricately beautiful I could spend the rest of my life making art with this as a starting point and never run out of inspiration. There is just so much to be drawn. So much to listen to. So much to receive.

I make my initial markings in pigment ink: I like the definite lines that are put down. I also love that, unlike pencil drawing, ink never gives me the opportunity to second-guess myself. What you see here is exactly what I draw as I am looking at the trees, giving a very direct connection between the landscape and what appears on the paper.

With these type of sketches, I am mapping the branches.

I am following the direction of the lines made by trunk, branch and stem, documenting the lines without giving them any preferential weight. I make no distinction between the lightest or heaviest of branches. Trunk and twig appear equal.

At this stage, I am only interested in the direction and relationship between directions. The points of intersection.

When I have a preliminary drawing that I am happy with, I take a handmade frame and place it on the drawing until I see a composition that speaks to me. I listen deeply. The urge to stop moving the frame is instant. I just know.

I use a variety of different sizes of frames, often working with a particular frame in mind. You can see the mark that masking paper has left over this drawing. One sketch can provide the basis for many different final paintings.

The next step is to move to watercolour paper, canvas or board.

I copy the composition in the original drawing exactly. It's important to me that I don't invent any lines. Each line is precisely as it exists in nature. The only thing I allow myself to do is to extend lines until they connect with the next line they intersect with. I have found that shapes that have been created like this are infinitely more beautiful than anything I could imagine or control. The more time I spend observing these twists and curves, the more they amaze me with their inherent perfection.

The next stage is colour. I choose my paints, sometimes working with a particular idea/palette in mind, sometimes leaving colour choice very free and open.  I proceed to paint each 'cell' of the framework individually, and in every one of my paintings, no matter how large or complex, it is very rare that two colours are used twice. No two colours are the same.

I paint in a very instinctive way at this point - it's immensely difficult to get a multitude of colours like this to balance correctly so with the placing of each colour I have to feel where the particular colour wants to go and trust that it will all work out in the end.  That my hand will be guided. And so far it has. Long may this continue.

Zoë Navarre, 2022