It isn’t unusual at all for me to be awake in the middle of the night. In fact it is quite normal. I would go so far as to say that when I was in academic work some of my best work was done in the middle of the night. The circumstancs of this post, however, are somewhat unusual. I’m in a hotel in Plymouth, after a family celebration to mark the 25th. wedding anniversary of my older son. For some reason I have woken up at three in the morning with my head full of ideas, but there is no studio to which I can creep away. The light from the screen on my iPad does allow me to do something without disturbing my sleeping wife.
The ideas that are keeping me awake have to do with a possible new painting project. It has been “loitering with intent” (as the police say) for a little while now, and will have to do with the ancient view that the world is composed of four fundamental elements….earth, air, fire and water. I have been impressed by the richness of these symbols, and mulling over ways of bringing these to life visually.
Yesterday I was able to spend some time looking at Plymouth, and wandered into the old minster church of St. Andrew. It is one of the few old buildings in the centre of the city to survive German bombing in the last war, although all the mediaeval glass was blown out of the windows. This has now been replaced by some manificent modern designs by the celebrated John Piper. I was really quite excited by some aspects of his work, and reflecting on this tonight has moved my thinking on significantly.
I am interested in linking the design to the notion of the “colour wheel”, familiar to artists.
I had an interesting conversation also with my wife, as we took our lunch later in a pub. For the first time I shared the idea of the project with her. (There is always a feeling of risk about going public with any artistic idea.) My first concept was to produce a series of four designs. She pointed out, quite sensibly, that I have done series in the past and it is impossible to sell them! So I might well settle for a single large piece.
Anyway, I can do nothing now until I get back to Bradford. I just hope that getting this off my chest will now enable me to get some sleep.