I spent as good part of yesterday and today up a ladder, disciplining the ivy. With nothing in front of me except ivy, and a limited range of tasks to do (snip, snip with the secateurs) I’ve had spent of opportunity to think. It came into my head that perhaps I am not really cut out to be a landscape painter.
I was looking before dinner at a catalogue for an exhibition by the English landscape painter Richard Hoare, and it is clear that he has an immediate and spontaneous connection with the fall of light on landscape. Each of his pictures is simply an expression of joy at what he sees. My own attempts too often use landscape as a way of pointing to something else. Even Almscliff Crag isn’t simply Almscliff Crag. The concept of my “Beyond” series is revealing.
I am happiest doing the kind of thing I have been doing over the past week, where visual images are interesting because they sum up and symbolise states of mind or experiences. They stand for something. There is no point in asking whether this is good or bad. That is simply the way it is, and I need to recognise what it is that gives me satisfaction, and try to do it to the best of my ability.
Taking the ivy clippings to the recycling centre this morning, a workman at the site complemented me on the skill with which I made the awkward move to get the stuff through the high door of the container. “You’ve done this before, lad!” he said. He was right. It was not a matter of strength but of perfectly timed and controlled swing. Some things I can do quite well.