WBS logo: Day 1 and Day 2

[WEDNESDAY 29 & THURSDAY 30 JUNE 2011]
The canvas finally arrived on Monday. By Wednesday morning I have marked out the regulation 480mm x 480mm square I have to contain my artwerk within, and the neon design is drawn out and ready.  It is the most detailed and scaled down neon I have painted yet - I envisage painstaking hours of delicate painting ahead.  I will be using acrylics for the first time in a long, long time (since 1995?), and these days I like to work big and bold, not small and delicate.  But I have to shrug off this straitjacket as there is prize-money at stake.

Day 1: I had some paid work to finish in the morning, but from 1.30 to 9pm I was painting and resting and painting and resting and painting and resting until my eyes couldn't focus and my arm could barely hold up the brush.

At the end of day 1 I had painted in the fine detail of the white neon forms, and put in a preliminary coat of blue glow and the black background.  It is a relief to not have any blank canvas showing.

Day 2: Werking with acrylics is at least allowing me to paint over and build up the layers a lot quicker than is usual with the oil paint, though this fine detail brush werk is threatening to drive me potty.

I pack up my brushes with a lot of ground-werk covered.  Now at the stage where I can start adding detail to the glow and bring the blackness in from the void.

the wait

[WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 2011]
Today I await delivery of a canvas.  The canvas has been supplied for me to re-produce a logo idea I submitted for a competition.  The rules have been changed and the goal-posts have been moved since I entered my idea.  But now that I've been short-listed as one of the finalists, I feel I should give it a shot.  It will be good practice, and it gives me a deadline to work to.  Plus: it would be nice to win the prize money!

No sign of it yet, so I shall return to my other canvases and show them some of my attentions: I gave the morse code neon a once over with some luscious Phthalo Blue...

Rather than twiddling my thumbs waiting, I decided to chase up that canvas:   turns out it's being made to measure, and it won't be sent out before Friday.  BALLS!  That's one week less werk for me then.

More filth: this time directed at the new canvas with the chintzy wallpaper over it.

the lazy routine (and how to get out of it)

[WEDNESDAY 15 JUNE 2011]
I seem to be falling into a rather lazy routine of late: waking around 9am, having a shower and a leisurely breakfast, checking my emails, drifting around on the internet.  I think I've lulled myself into the idea that because I stay here later than I used to, I don't need to start as early as I once did.  [internal voice: "But you could get even more painting done, you dummy!"]. The voice in my head speaks sense.

The Path of Least Resistance 3 (pink) is signed.

I threw a load of inky filth down the morse code rock face, it made a right bloody mess.

The idea was to make the rock face more scuzzy and stained, I was happy standing over the canvas at 16.36.

lost trees, rejections, sunshine, showers, ouzo

[WEDNESDAY 08 JUNE 2011]
The men came and chopped down the tree.  And all I was thinking was: "I hope the nesting birds have all flown".

That was the start.  Then I received an exhibition rejection, which bought me down a peg or two.  Then the rain came down.  And somehow I've got to rouse myself to go and paint.

By 2pm I've had another rejection.  "We'd like to encourage you to submit again for next year's competition".  Maybe you'll be good enough by then... Balls! Someone really is determined to piss on my parade today.

Between rejections and cups of tea, I had time to just touch up a tiny area of the "rock face", and now I think it is done.  Despite having at least 4 other canvases on the go, I feel a yearning, aching void, and the need to embark on something new.  In a bid to counteract blank canvas syndrome I cover one in some pretty-pretty, chintzy fabric.  And I know immediately that there are one or two philistines out there who would be happy to offer me money to hang it on their wall as it is.

Fuck 'em.

I will now take out my frustrations on said canvas.

Actually, all that "energy" was targeted at a different canvas.  I painted blue skies and green, verdant trees, and I painted them with conviction.  We lost some clouds in the process, and that can only be a good thing.  And I felt a bit better about everything.

So much so that on a whim I left the blue "morse code" neon outside to contend with the elements - Sunshine and showers all afternoon.

The tally for the day:
2 x lost trees (they took another out in the process)
2 x rejections
1 or 2 pegs being taken down
Much cursing and swearing
1 x finished painting
1 x new painting
1 x wet painting
1 x blue sky made bluer
2 x clouds lost
4 x trees made fresher
2 x big swigs from the bottle of Ouzo
Many cups of tea and coffee
1 x strange twitch in my upper lip which began just a moment ago.

[THURSDAY 02 JUNE 2011]
I shake my fist once again at the May bank holiday bonanza knocking my week out of kilter.  It's not that I didn't enjoy my day off on Monday, but it does leave me a little off balance.  I'm a sensitive artistic type you see.

[As with the previous post, I am writing this in retrospect, going by the photographic documentation from the day, and the brief intro I wrote above. Only 2 photos exist.  Conclusions: I werked on Ne Travaillez Jamais during the afternoon, the following images were taken at 16.47]