This is one of my latest prints. It is 6 colour, limited edition, screen print. The inspiration for this print eventually came when I decided to go back to basics and create something that was expressive and minimal. In this case the starting point was a lily. To create a simple silhouette of a flower and then add lines of overlapping colours inside a silhouette.

I spent a very long time experimenting with different ideas, trying to develop a flower illustration on computer. I eventually came to the conclusion that I was trying too hard. You can see some examples some i like, and work very well, but for me just didn’t quite work as a finished stand alone work of art that could be developed into a unique print edition.
This is an example of how it can be more important to put significant hours into idea development and testing. Plus the added issue of when you have to go through the long process of testing out many ideas to figure out that the ones you are working on are in fact not very good in the first place. The idea being that once I have tested all these bad ideas I will be now be able to find a good working idea. If only I could simply come up with a great idea and then do it. This brute force away of stumbling through up to a dozen bad or repetitive ideas seems to work for me.

Interestingly once that clear idea emerges it becomes plain sailing, the final artwork creates itself. The actual image i created for this print started in Photoshop, and really didn’t take that long at all to complete. I remember working for about an hour. For that moment it was like watching the image emerge in front of me. Once the texture interplay was working on three colour layers I knew I was on to something. After that the Silver background was very easy to create.

A simple side view of a Flower head in full bloom with a combination of solid, sweeping brushstrokes with subtle botanical elements in six layers including Silver and Metallic Gold. Done.

More pictures here: www.chriskeegan.co.uk/product/full-bloom/