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.