let's get physical

[WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH 2010]
I've been itching to get painting for the last couple of days. Then Wednesday finally rolls around and I lose the urge. I've procrastinated for too long this morning, I will head out to the loft and get on with it...

I arrive to find some wee beastie has passed already judgement on my werk:


I play some music and open the water colour set. By the time I break for tea there is some definite progress with the shadows:


I return and spend a quick 30 minutes werking on the end elevation, and paying some attention to the roof ornamentation. And this is how I leave it:



Just some time to white over a primed canvas before lunch. I exit covered in specks of household emulsion.

Remember 'Wish You Were Here'? I wrestle the behemoth seascape onto the studio wall.


It's a daunting thing to have in front of you, especially when you can't get any distance from it. I throw charcoal, sand, water and paint at it. It is satisfyingly physical.

step-by-step

[THURSDAY 25 MARCH 2010]
Yes it is Thursday. Yes I am a day behind. Yes I have werk to do.

I re-stretched a primed but sagging canvas - much better! Then I set myself up with some watercolours and that new non-neon canvas I started last week. I went a bit nuts crouched there in the studio all day filling in tiny details.

Here is what occurred in a few step-by-step photographs:

STEP 1: filling in the outlines


STEP 2: progress by lunchtime


STEP 3: 4pm, it's all in the detail


And relax.

VOTE NEON!

in a moment of rashness I entered one of my paintings (again) in the
bunfight that is the Saatchi online showdown...

Not sure why I did it, but a quick glance through some of the
competition shows me that the standard of entries hasn't changed much
since last time!

If anyone is actually reading this, please go and rate my painting via the
following link (and don't forget to add my artwork as a favourite, as
this seems to help bump up the ratings!)

www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=259388

Thanks for your time and support
The Wednesday Painter

non-neon

[WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH 2010]
Today I was up and Wednesday Painter-ing at 8.15am. I began werk on a new non-neon painting - 115cm x 115cm. I temporarily lost the use of my legs, kneeling on the floor for an interminable length of time, tracing the projected outlines of a building.



I had intended this to be a distraction from the neon painting. And something I could werk on quickly and intuitively in short blasts. I was not intending the level of detail I seem to have put on myself. I may have bitten off more than I can chew.



I was pencilling on unprimed canvas, so when I finished, I took it out to the loft for priming. I have had trouble with this huge roll of canvas I bought a while ago - It was a mistake, probably one of the worst things I've bought for my art. It is too fine, not heavy enough, and not densely woven enough. Alas every time I've tried to prepare the surface, it goes nice and taught, then when it dries it goes slack and saggy. I was pleading with this one not to sag.

I return a couple of hours later, and the canvas seems to be keeping tension. Another coat of primer over the pencil-werk, then pray...

In the mean time, more projecting. Another new painting, working title: "Release The Bats". One for all you goths out there!

After lunch I return to check on the primed canvas. Everything is still okay. Not much more I can do, I have to leave early, so I pack up and I go.

The Wednesday Carpenter

[WEDNESDAY 10 MARCH 2010]

Yes, today they call me the Wednseday Carpenter.

I did more canvas priming, and then I set up werkshop in the workshop... I have purchased yet another mitre-saw, another 'tool of the artist' - this is the most accurate one so far, and a snip at just £5 from the charity shop.

I made a canvas stretcher 115cm x 115cm. I plan to use this to try out a new, non-neon, painting.

Procrastination or essential prep-werk?