Neither is painting with egg tempera learned within a week! One of the primary reasons you have not heard from me for a few days has been my preoccupation with learning to use a new medium. For some idiotic reason I had developed the totally unreasonable expectation that, having been on a one-week course, I would be able simply to do it. What a crazy notion! When I reflect one the amount of time that had to pass before I reckoned I could produce a reasonably competent image in pastels, my response to the situation is completely laughable!
I suppose that the current Wimbledon tennis championships ought to provide me with a good metaphor. You don’t even get there without years of practice and competition, and when you do it is still necessary to win over several rounds.
Having completed the range of colours I believe that I need, by mail order, and replaced the one that had been exhausted, I’m ready to play another set. I do hope that the crowd will be rooting for me.
That reminds me of a rather good anecdote I picked up today, about Nicos Kyrios. Throughout one of his matches a woman in the crowd had been calling out advice to him. At set point he turned to her and asked, “Where would you advise me to place my serve?”