path of a painting

march

june 9th

July

august 29th

september 5th

september 12th

september 16th

I've had a very good couple of weeks of consistent and mostly daily  work on one painting. Instead of my usual attitude of doing a bit here and there and seeing what transpires, i have made decisions about the patterns and design on this canvas and, for the most part, stuck to them - even working on it in my sketchbook in the evenings downstairs to keep focused for the next day. The old method (which wasn't a method at all) never worked; paintings would be left for months, sometimes years, in unfinished states. There's a stack over there.
 An awful lot of claptrap is peddled about art. Especially painting and especially abstract painting. Most of the nonsense is spoken by those who can't paint but admire the ability to do so and plenty by art critics who really should know better. A mystique is created and a 'God is painting through me' element can even creep in. I am guilty of having a hierarchical scale of my own endeavors with painting at the top and embroidery, knitting, bear making and photography jostling beneath, buying, idiotically into the idea that art trumps craft.
   A painting is paint on a support. Painting is the act of putting paint on a support. That's all there is to it. And the viewer either likes it or doesn't like it.
    So in thinking and, more importantly, feeling like this, i've done more work in the last fortnight than i have for a very long time. Another reason for the tremendous Getting On With It is the thought which has developed into a certainty, that this and the plastered canvas are to be my last orb/circle paintings for a little while. I may tinker a bit on a smaller scale but i think some kind of unconscious desire has finally been satisfied. I used to rail against the orbs but an art therapist friend advised me not to, just to let them appear. In Steiner wisdom, so another friend mentioned, the circle represents a wish for wholeness.

  In Other News, I've made the first print of the Inner Ear lino cut. It needs some tidying up before i print it again. It's the first cut i've made using the new Pfeil tools and i'm thrilled to see that all the additional gouging i did to deepen the lines was unnecessary as even the light, single marks show very well.

 Ofcourse, one of the best things about any kind of art or craft is that nothing ever turns out perfectly..... so we keep going.

rain starts play

Unable to complete the paving project in the garden due to rain, (and with an air of "well i was going to get on with some painting anyway") i've been getting on with some painting.

21t August. The questioning ear, like a raised eyebrow. Painting still mainly blue, leaning against the sideboard.

29th August

 

5th September

Parts of this painting are working out ok but i need to keep stepping back to think hard about how to homogenize. Having said in a previous post that i am no longer going to waste time berating myself for continually making orbs and circles in my paintings, i now have a distinct feeling that i am ready to leave them for while; perhaps even, to use an F-word, make some figurative work.

8th September

This poor canvas has been in a barely begun state for months. Yesterday i made a mixture of plaster-filler and p.v.a and troweled it on with my biggest palette knife. I thought today i would be able to sand it, but.....

...imagine my joy when on close examination, i discovered lots of cracking! This is one of my favourite things. It's still damp in the thicker layers. When it's dry, i shall drench it in p.v.a in the most cracked areas to prevent it from falling off. I think this canvas will stay very white-ish. I have another white picture, on board, which i would like to work on but at present it is blocking the fireplace in my bedroom. We don't send kittens up chimneys anymore in this country, whether they want to go up or not.

 
Lino News is good - have enjoyed gouging away at the Inner Ear in the evenings, in front of the telly for the last couple of weeks and am ready to print! I hope the ink hasn't dried up in the tube...