This painting began life in Blue Door Studio back in autumn 2023 or even 2022 when the gesso surface was prepared - 3 days morning and evening squeegie-ing cream like liquid over the sealed wood panel, leaving it to dry and sanding in between. After leaving Blue Door Studio it moved about (bedroom studio, University of Bedfordshire residency, new studio) and had various iterations.

At one point it thought it was finished or nearly finished during open studios last year… but it wasn’t. So underneath this painting are about 5 others - they glow through the surface, concealed and somehow also present, like the echoes of previous lives and paths taken, not taken or explored and then recovered from.

‘Softening’ because emerging from sleep in the early morning, the light can be quiet, gentle, hushed in possibility even though the birds may be raucous in their joy.

‘Softening’ because this world often asks us to be anything but soft and yet what if we all quietly created more space? What if things were easier and more mellow? What if we insisted on kindness, gentleness, compassion, listening and non-violence … what then?