It was a long day at the hospital yesterday and once everything was sorted and my daughter was settled in bed, I needed to do something to switch off.

Some wandering lines in different colours on flip chart paper – I quite like the flimsy quality to it. Then dotting the connections, many of which I’ve missed I’m sure but my eyes were getting tired. It was brainless activity, but incredibly soothing. That done, I decided to incorporate some of the contour-like lines I have previously used in my doodles.

Add in some grid lines and the result is something akin to a map. But what to do next? How can I incorporate this into something else or develop it further? I decided to leave it for now, whilst I still like it, before I do something I’ll undoubtedly regret but which is all part of the experimental process.

I’ve reflected on it further today – I had a look at some ordnance survey maps (incidentally OS is half an hour down the road from me in Southampton) to think about symbols. I remembered last year in Mallorca and the Miró/ Picasso exhibition at Sóller train station. There was a key showing the symbols Miró used and their meanings.

I didn’t think that I liked Miró, but then I hadn’t seen any of his work in the flesh. They were extraordinary and thinking about it now full of map like qualities; symbols in a spatial relationship, a visual expression of his inner world. Which now makes sense, considering these ones are part of his ‘Constellation’ series!