Colour Series

In Plymouth, we have the most amazing colourful garage doors in the alley outside the back garden. When we have been going on our daily walks since returning from lockdown in Scotland, I kept thinking of how to use them in a project. When I studied at Plymouth College of Art, we learned of Getty’s 2017 trend ‘Colour Surge‘ where the first thing you notice about the photograph was colour, I have always wanted to explore this concept further so knew that these doors would be perfect for something. Rainbows have also been a key symbol of lockdown too so I thought why just do one colour when I could do the whole spectrum.

Compared to my previous project of ‘Lockdown in Scotland‘, these images provided a great contrast with their urban feel and being from a performing arts background it created a great incentive for getting dressed up with my girls and creating characters that were full of narrative. We did these images over a few days and I tasked my daughter April to find everything she could of each colour; it was surprisingly easy to find as we have very colourful wardrobes. Lockdown has been incredibly monotonous at times, so finding games in everything we do has been important to keeping my daughter April happy. It was a lot of fun to do, the neighbours had a laugh at our matching outfits and both my daughters got into their character’s well (classic photographer’s children!). Once I shared this project on my social media, the reaction I have received has been both overwhelming and motivating. Being a mother of two girls at such different ages during Lockdown has been testing, and I have this creative drive that I don’t always find the time or energy to pursue. Knowing the public support my work has kick-started something in me to just put my work out there as much as possible no matter how unfinished it feels, I am a terrible perfectionist that I don’t always share things in case I look back on it once I have improved my skills. This is something I now understand won’t help me grow.

I will be creating a coffee table style book through my websit soon as there has been a high demand for one.