i heart thick paint

[WEDNESDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2009]
I came back for a few hours on Thursday last week. I spent my time knocking back the “rock face” with some Titanium White and chalk. And yesterday afternoon I partook in some Tuesday Painting – I discovered that Permanent Magenta mixes much better with Ivory Black (rather than my staple Lamp Black). I put his to the test in the void that almost swallows the pink neon. The canvas has been retired again, and is so far standing up to my silent scrutiny, hanging in the lounge.

I celebrated by christening a new No.1 brush. As you can see, I needed it.


I heart thick paint: mmmmmm, slap it on.


And now for a quick exit, so I can cycle to the station

Filling the void

[WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2009]
I am filling the void, replacing outward-going paintings with onward-going ones. Two weeks of feeling listless and lost in a painter’s void, and I’m clawing my way out, werking on “three and eight”.


I pay some more attention to the sinister crow, bringing its red neon perch to shimmering life.


I keep looking at the clock. I can’t kid myself. Even though the void is being gradually filled, my heart is not completely in it. Maybe it’s because I’m a little out of sorts, maybe it’s just one of those days. I have grand ideas for new paintings, but I really must finish the unfinished first – clear the decks of at least 2 of these canvases that I have lingered for far too long.

An inventory of werks cluttering the loft:
1. Home Sweet Home – neon in green and orange-red
2. Three and Eight – neon in deep red and green
3. Something Sinister This Way Comes – crow perched on deep red neon
4. Ssshh – white neon on black
5. Wish You Were Here – large format seascape with red neon.
6. Ne Travaillez Jamais – neon of indeterminate colour on dilapidated wall.
7. The Path of Least Resistance 4 (white) – barely started white neon on small canvas
8. Untitled (blue neon electrical currents) – small canvas

I am determined to finish 1 and 2 as a matter of priority. 3 and 4, I werk on as the whim takes me; 5 is my next big project; 6, a long-forgotten werk, awaiting a spark of inspiration; 7 and 8, their day may or may not come.

I stopped looking at the clock. I stopped thinking about what I could be doing. I cleaned up my brushes. I squeezed out some Lemon Yellow and Emerald Green and I werked away at the three green neon strips of ‘Three and Eight’, then I went back over the eight red strips, blurring the edges of the bright white centres. I think I may take it inside tonight and hang it for a silent, intermittent critique. One thing I can’t decide is whether it actually looks better upside down. This only occurred to me as I werked on it the wrong way up, earlier today.



One thing I do know is that it is 5.40pm, which, in theory, means that any extra werk I do from now on is a bonus. ‘Three and Eight’ is upside down and on the wall. I have some of the yellow-green mix left to use on ‘Home Sweet Home’…


And relax. A sip of apple schnapps. Clean up the brushes. Exit via ladder.

The return of the Thursday Painter.

[THURSDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2009]
The Thursday Painter has temporarily retired the “rock face” painting. It hangs in the house awaiting casual scrutiny of an evening. And then there were seven. Seven canvases at varying stages of conception: 2 that are of little interest – started and then ignored; 4 that are presently “on the go”; and1 that I try to ignore - a huge elephant sat just at the top of the ladder.


For a few weeks, there, I was on a roll: Werking away with the paintbrush, knowing almost intuitively where to pass each brush-stroke. Wednesdays and Thursdays here in this loft-space, I felt like an artist. Maybe it was the focus, and knowing I had deadlines to complete each of those commemorative date paintings by. Maybe I need more deadlines, something to aim for. I am feeling rudderless again.

Back from lunch, and tickling away at the sinister crow. It shouldn’t be like this. I am almost ready to give up on it completely, start a new painting – this was only really a sketch, a trial, an experiment – a small-scale maquette to see how it would work. To see if I could make it work. I take up a brush and go at it with conviction. I am happier with it now, still got some way to go, but definitely worth persevering.

Goodbye Crow, hello Ssshh. I just can’t seem to get this white neon to work for me. I don’t know whether to stay here and struggle on, or call it a day and go and do something else. If I clean my brushes, is that admitting defeat? I feel all cold inside. I feel like going in.

The Painter's Void

[WEDNESDAY 09 SEPTEMBER 2009]
The date is 09.09.09. The world did not end at nine minutes and nine seconds past nine this morning. I was on the internet, so I would have seen something. What is wrong is that my lower-back pain is nagging again and I have an ulcer on the tip of my tongue which catches on all these jagged things called teeth that fill my cake-hole. It is not conducive to a good days werk.

Top-secret painting number 3 is now finished and signed. It sits in the house ready to be wrapped and to go to its new home.


Another void is left in its wake: The Painters Void. I liken it to writer’s block, only it’s the emptiness and deflation you feel having finished a piece, rather than the anxiety at embarking on a new venture. I have no problems embarking on new werks. In fact I constantly have to stop myself.

There have been positive reports filtering through about top-secret paintings 1 and 2. It seems they were well received. Phew. I am hoping for a hat-trick.

‘Home Sweet Home’ has taken up residence on the easel. I have been tackling the orangey-red neon that is yet to meet my standards.


It still does not meet my standards.

I have at least composed a rough post about Les Beatles for the L’Amour Electronique blog.

I feel like going home.

workman-like werk

[THURSDAY 03 SEPTEMBER 2009]
Yes we are a day late this week, aside from that it is business as usual: I have a nagging pain in my lower back (a symptom of camping over the bank-holiday weekend), which is causing some discomfort as I perch on the stool, and is thus hampering today’s progress.

Top-secret painting number 2 is signed and awaiting release:


Top-secret painting number 3 is on the easel looking almost finished, but not quite there enough for my liking. It has a week to get itself ready for its grand debut.

Outside, summer is pretty much over, and autumnal wind and rain is paying a visit.

And then I werked on the crow, perched on a deep red glowing strip of neon. It has a working title: “Something Sinister This Way Comes”.

Time to crack open the Alizarin Crimson – I have a number of red neon pieces in various states, and I can see one of them definitely needs some deeper, darker red tones introduced. The painting in question is “three and eight”, the red neon strips have been attended to, and now it is time for lunch. A long lunch - The kind of lunch you take when you haven’t got anything really tempting to come back to. I’m in post-painting completion limbo: an object that has taken up so much of my time and attentions has been taken away. There are a number of surrogates, but none has yet fallen into the gaping hole it has left.

I continue to werk on “three and seven”, it is workman-like werk, not fire-in-the-belly werk. But it is still werk, and werk is what I am here for.