I am never more content than when I am painting, and it has been such a relief over the past few days to get stuck into another project. I’m now into the second piece based upon my recent visit to the Bradgate Country Park, in Leicestershire, involving ancient trees. This afternoon, however, I was given pause for thought.
My wife always has interesting comments to make on my work, and whenever she offers an opinion it is always worth listening to. Giving my work a careful once-over she remarked that my greens were not sufficiently “serious”. Now what am I to make of that? She then went on to mention several objects in which we might expect to encounter greens, but where the shade of green one might find would not be “serious” …. children’s toys, for example. Unfortunately she was not able to point me clearly towards once which would be uncontroversially “serious”.
I’m still pondering over that one, and I’m not entirely sure what a “serious” green might look like. Anyway, I have finished painting for the day, and tomorrow morning will be taken up with the monthly meeting of the regional Italian Circle, so I have plenty of time in which to reflect on her remark. I wonder whether, as we drive around tomorrow, my attention might be grabbed by the cry of “There’s one!”