I’ve just done something I don’t remember ever doing before. I have abandoned a picture after a relatively short period of struggle with it, simply on the basis that I came to hate the paper I had chosen to use. Normally I relish the experience of adapting to different surfaces, but on this occasion the … Read more
Is there such a term as “cartomania?” If not, I hereby invent it as a means of describing my own condition. I decided this morning that I would begin a new picture, and determined relatively quickly that this would be done in pastels. This directed me towards particular kinds of paper, as not all papers … Read more
A nephew of mine runs a very good restaurant in the East Yorkshire town of Beverley.* Under the present restrictive regime, not surprisingly, he has had to close. Food, however, is his passion and not just a business. Maybe he is just keeping his hand in and maybe he is trying to use up his … Read more
After my long layoff, during which I was not able to paint, I now find that I am storming ahead. In the past week I have brought two pictures to that state in which I need to spend the next two weeks staring at them, asking myself if they are finished or not. Doing two … Read more