A quote for today : ‘Art is the only way to run away without leaving home’ . When I am in my studio space I completely cut myself off from the world, with or without music in the background. I need this space for myself, my body space, my privacy. Without it, I can’t really function properly and find it almost impossible to start a new work, let alone finish it. But then to mention another quote by Frida Kahlo: ‘At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can’. Hmmmm, not sure about that one at the moment … It’s a difficult balance sometimes getting it right as an artist; we need to be alone in order to create, but we also need the social interaction with other artists/people, otherwise we can feel very isolated and go into a downward spiral of negativity. To The Pink Hat now. I felt the blues of the pool were overwhelming the painting too much and the wall our lady was leaning on was too grey in tone. The hat looked bland and generally speaking, I wanted to throw the work out the window… However, I have battled…
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This is a slightly larger piece, 24 x 18″ (60 x 45 cm) than my recent works and space permitting I would like to paint larger still in this style. The swimming pool water is crying out for a large 5 x 5 ft (150 X 150 cm) canvas in the bright Mediterranean colours I love so much, but living in a one bedroom end flat makes this well nigh impossible …. For now! When I finally get discovered and am selling all over the world, well David Hockney eat your heart out. But for now I am so enjoying painting the water in this painting; the different shades of blue, the white highlights which bring out the effect of the rippling water and the lighter blue lines of the paintwork. Can’t wait to do all the coloured highlights next week, the paler blue turquoise etc. I will be adding different shades of red/pink and orange to the hat to make it sing out more, as at the moment it looks too flat and two dimensional. Likewise I have to find a way to make the feet really look as if they are under the water, probably toning down the…
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Having finished my quiet piece ‘Should I stay or should I go’ I wanted to paint a similar work, and failed totally. I realised, yet again, that I have to be spontaneous when I paint, and to paint another painting in similar vein so soon after the original just doesn’t do it for me. I wasted several hours working out compositions, blocking in the work etc, getting increasingly frustrated. I left the work overnight and the next morning could see that I was going wrong. All is not lost, as I do like the final composition and will come back to this work at a later date. So to this piece, which is going to be completely different and I love the good feeling I get when I feel a painting is going the right direction. Instead of a quiet piece, this will be bright and lively with Meditarranean colours. Can’t wait to get into all the detail of the swimming pool with different shades of turquoise and blue and splashes of white; you can see the start in the right hand corner of the painting. A hot and sunny artwork… The pink hat will be brighter as time goes…
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