Some time ago I decided that a good description of my painting is that is lies somewhere between still life and landscape. Very often I will focus on natural objects, and even fragments of landscape, but these will be viewed in closeup. (Rummage around in the “galleries” attached to this web-site and you will see what I mean. A couple of years ago I hit upon a nice title for an exhibition along these lines, namely Draw closer. The sad thing is that this was hung on the eve of the first serious lockdown, so that it is probable that nobody ever saw it. Ah, well!
Today I finished my first proper piece using egg tempera, and I’m really rather pleased by it. It consists of “portraits” of six small pieces of stone, collected during my recent holiday on the island of Anglesey. It certainly fits well the general description as falling in the space between still life and landscape. What is more, it sent me back to my files in order to look at the material I had envisaged including in the Draw Closer exhibition. In yesterday’s blog I reminded myself that it is about time that I put in some effort to secure some more opportunities for exhibition. There was nothing very specific in my mind at that point about exactly what I would like to promote at the moment. Now I think that I have hit on as good focus …. and a good title.
That is actually very motivating, because it will permit me to make a much clearer proposal to potential exhibitors. It reminds me of my time as a university academic, when I was always aware, in making a proposal for a conference paper or a journal article, that a good title would get you half way there.