Going through process to get to the gold

Research and process is the beginning of a journey, for me this journey is beginning with a specific place that includes a number of elements that interest me, spark my imagination and inspiring picture making. That specific place is Dylife lead mines. I am excited by the ariel views of the mine workings and I have divided up my explorations in to three areas as follows: Hidden/Revealed, Time/Memory and Archaeology/Minerology. 

The first photo here shows one of my reference images, part of the mine as it looks today. From this image I have made a painting, from the ariel point of perspective, looking at shape, line and colour. The painting has undergone 5 transformations, I nearly gave up! but continued to work on it and ended up with a painting I liked that expressed something of what I was aiming for, of time passing, the craggy texture of the bleak landscape, this is work exploring  themes of the hidden and revealed. I am showing some of the steps the painting went through, including painting over the whole thing with white paint and sanding, scraping and revealing -

I have learned a lot through this process such as taking time to think and look, experimenting, being brave - its ok to paint over, its ok to go in a different direction - I have discovered what works for me through process and exploration, techniques, different tools, taking a risk and being patient.