With my chosen topic for experimentation in mind - I undertook some exercises to try to help me relax and think differently about how I went about creating. 

For this I poured watercolour pigments over watercolour paper and allowed them to dry. At first I thought it would look good as a sunset, but tried to think a little more creatively. On a seperate piece of paper I had painted some bamboo with a panda sitting by the side - very simple and I was going to scrap it and start again. However, I ripped the edges and burnt down the sides to attempt to create a harsh feel and a comment on forest fires in China, as I was there when one struck. I tried to overlay the bamboo picture onto the mass of colour in different ways, until I liked one. This way the panda being surrounded by red could either mean fire or blood but I think that's up to the viewer.

A simple experiment but whether it's abstract and not experimental is something I need to get my head around.