….you can’t shake it off. My sudden and surprising encounter with sawn logs the other day is really yielding results. It is amazing the way in which an artistic idea can get its claws into you. Already I’ve selected nine of the images I took with the camera then, and edited them slightly (no more than cropping). I think that I will combine these into a single, multi-image picture. They fit best when the originals are cropped to three slightly different formats.
The biggest problem I’ve encountered so far is (as is often the case) the choice of paper. As I’ve committed to attempting this project in egg tempera this has pointed me towards a particular type of good-quality watercolour paper. I’ve made a start on the preliminary drawing of the images, pinning them (together with their original photos) on the board in the studio. When the preliminaries are all done I will have the opportunity to give it a long appraisal before the painting begins. I’m really quite excited about the idea.
It is odd how one’s personal mood can be so out of synch with events in the wider world. Here in the UK we are facing rather prospect of the return of restrictions in our movement, in the attempt to combat the new strain of Covid. When I hear the news I find steam coming out of my ears as a result of the goings-on of our wretched government. Somehow, however, I seem to be able, at the moment, to look at this with a kind of detachment. This is strange, because deep down inside I do feel that my art does have a connection to what is going on out there, even if it is not easy to put this into words.