This large painting on board (122 x 180cm) is part of my grad show body of work. For this series, I was thinking of flowers as markers of time- we celebrate, grieve and remember with them. These thoughts guide the beginning of the work but as it progresses I let intuition and chance take the lead. The painting starts to dictate certain moves and I paint until it feels like there is nothing more to be done to it. These photos show select stages of the work. There was about a month from the start of this painting to the end; although if I come back to this in another month I can probably start working on it again. Perhaps  a painting is never really done, just in a cyclical process of becoming. The title ‘we can’t go back’ is from a piece of writing that I unfortunately can’t remember the source of but it was about how things can’t be made simple again once innocence is lost. ‘we can’t go back’ suggests either staying still or moving forward.