Today I went climbing again. To start with, I was rubbish, although things did improve. The reason I was so poor at the start was that I had no opportunity to warm up before attempting more difficult climbs. If we go to an indoor wall it is always possible to warm up on a couple of easy routes. On the crag we visited today, there were no easy routes.
I’ve never thought of this before, but suddenly it occurred to me that there is a similarity here with art. For several months now (possibly as long as a year) I have been working with either pastels or acrylics. I do use watercolour from time to time, but I can’t remember the last time I did so. I’m getting ready for a solo exhibition in October, and some of the items I want to put into that really need to be in watercolour. There are possibly two new compositions I’d like to put into this collection. Instead of throwing myself directly into one of these compositions, I found myself yesterday “rehearsing” the techniques with a minor idea, which will possibly not end up as an exhibitable item. I’m “warming up”! It’s useful, because I’m refreshing my memory in relation to several items of technique …. and actually finding the stuff again! I never thought I would see parallels between climbing and painting, but there you go!
Incidentally, today is the anniversary of my climbing accident last year. (I broke both my arms in as fall.) It’s good to be able to say that I’m back to normal. Still not very good, but back to normal!
I’m sorry to report that for a short while (I hope) I’ve turned off the comment facility on this site. The reason for this is that I’ve recently had the unhappy experience of being invaded by spammers, using the comment facility. I can’t imagine what satisfaction people get from this idiotic behaviour, but it does seem to be a widespread problem of all kinds of electronic communication. I’m investigating ways of getting this facility restored. Wish me luck!