You Can’t Ignore A Small Thing

A story, my focus for the last few months, is ready to sally forth.

At a certain point in creating a new story, I experience a mixed sense of excitement and panic. This painting came about during such a panic; a dialogue goes around in my head … catch this feeling …catch the face … give her a home, so that the whole thing becomes real.

When the painting has begun, a familiar conflict arises between what I wrote and the oblique, sometimes downright subversive fun of illustrating it. In this instance, a baby in a striped nightdress entered from nowhere. There was no little sister originally in my written narrative. I now suspect she was called into being by her big sister’s presumptuous red socks. The baby even brought a speaking part, which only seems fair; as the story revolves around the theme of being heard.

Using oil paint brings a different language to illustrating, provided by its particular luxuriousness. It was a joy playing the rough curtain of deep green leaves against the light detail in the children’s faces. That green also makes a lovely foil for those little red socks. That was at the heart of what made me write this story- ‘You can’t ignore a small thing’