systematic painting & sub/conscious drawing

[WEDNESDAY 02 MAY 2012]
I have been away, did you miss me? No? Well I certainly missed my Wednesday Painting sessions, but I did get in a bit of brushwerk whilst at home, finishing a neon date painting to commemorate the wedding of an old friend [see here].

So, what have I been up to today? I began with some 'Sub/conscious' drawing in the shed. I managed 6 in all, using a dipping pen and indian ink - this, it seems, is what lurks in the darker depths of my mind today:

Once I sat down in the studio, I picked up werk on the '...RUGS...' painting. During a break I had to rescue a bird from the evil family cat. The poor thing was terrified, so I took it somewhere quiet in the hope it would regain it's strength and survive. The cat has been locked in ever since.

UPDATE: The bird was not where I left it, and a spooked bird flew off as I approached, so hopefully it is okay.

Back to the shed to add a splash of colour to a few of the drawings...

And then on with the '...RUGS...' canvas: It's funny to me how systematic the early stages of these neon paintings can be - painterly but systematic, adding a layer at a time across the whole image, then back to the first letter for the next round. Soon I will have the groundwerk done though and I can get a bit more free and gestural with the brush.

dot-dot-dot-dot / dot / dot-dash-dot-dot / dot-dash-dash-dot

[WEDNESDAY 02 FEBRUARY 2011]

• Menial computer tasks to do - CHECK
• Internet distractions minimised - CHECK
• Tea drunk - CHECK
• Studio heater on - CHECK

I will now switch off the computer and I will put my shoes on and I will take the short walk outside, around the corner, up the ladder, and there to take my place on the other side of the wall I am currently facing...

The wall was physical, not metaphorical.  The loft is just the other side.

Out comes the Cadmium Red, and I set to outlining the new-improved 'Home Sweet Home', it takes great concentration and a long time.  As I painted in the areas around the last 2 letters, I found myself thinking like E.T. "Home! Ho-ooome!"

Enough of the japes.  Next I tackle the morse-code dots and dashes, painting around them and filling in the crack with what will soon be a deep, dark void.  I take a photo, it looks like some kind of craggy, barnicle-d whale opening its mouth just a crack to reveal some blue lights glowing from deep within.  Strange.

the application of various layers of filth, liquids and spirits

[WEDNESDAY 18 AUGUST 2010]
Small canvas. Projection. Draw outlines in pencil. Paint in with white acrylic. Mask areas with masking fluid. Leftover Permanent Geranium and Titanium White paint. Leftover Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow paint diluted with turpentine.

After much exertion I finally manage to open a pot of mixed up grey-green and paint it thickly over the top. (I made such a big thing out of that fact, but I never even took a photograph of the result...)

Wildlife watch: Look! There's a green woodpecker strolling round the field picking at insects.


Back in the loft, The Wednesday Painter throws some filthy inky, oily water down the small canvas...

The canvas is rubbed down to allow the application of a verdigris mix of Emerald Green and Prussian Blue with Titanium White...

Some time later: more ink flows down the surface, and then we're outside for a sprinkle with the hose...

The masking fluid is rubbed away (most of it had disintegrated, anyway, during the application of various layers of filth, liquids and spirits).

The canvas is left horizontal, a pool of grubby water, oil and ink glinting under the fluorescent strip light.

There is no wrong.

[WEDNESDAY 09 JUNE 2010]
10.15am: I have been searching for things to do in London this Friday. It was not procrastination. It was important research. And now I will make some coffee and head for the studio...

Didn't quite make it out the door. There was perfect light in the extension to photograph '...SMILE' - bright, but a little overcast. I lugged the mammoth canvas down the ladder and propped it up against the wall, went to fetch a camera and returned to blinding sunshine. Aarrggh! Come back clouds I need you!

I waited around drinking coffee and setting up for a good shot. Finally some cloud cover allowed me to snap away.


Then my attention was distracted by a shrew running across the floor. It stopped to munch on a dead insect, and ran off when I got close. Spent about ten minutes trying to catch the little fellow so I could let him loose in the garden. Failed. I don't fancy his chances now that the cat has acquired some hunting skills.

Finally went out to get on with some werk, did a spot of colour mix testing, then one of those giant European hornets came buzzing in. At which point I buzzed off, turning all the lights off in the hope it would go elsewhere.

Consequently not much painting has been done thus far. Though I did paint some Permanent Geranium around the word 'AMOUR'. I will do more after lunch.

The afternoon shift was far more productive: Much of my attention was focussed on the meeting of the blue and deep red glow on 'Love is Amour in French'. Something seems to have changed in my painting style. Where before I would systematically werk up a whole layer of colour following the shape of the word/form, I found myself adding paint selectively, and more discriminately, to small areas of glow. Perhaps, in part, because I was using a specific image as reference?

At some point I slapped a load of Lemon Yellow across the dark void of the canvas, something I probably wouldn't have dared do before this new found confidence reared its head.

Something is watching:

I reigned myself in on 'Love is Amour...' must let it dry a bit before I can werk on it again. I turned to the purple neon drip: more Lemon Yellow, got to build up the paint - I took the decision not to add a final white layer when priming, and it feels like werking on raw canvas - it just sucks up the pigment. Another rash move: tipping a whole load of water down the surface. Confidence rains down in bucket loads and there is no wrong.

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.

Yes/No

[WEDNESDAY 20 JANUARY 2010]
It is snowing again. Third Wednesday on the trot. Welcome to 2010, where Wednesday is snow day. It’s quite wet snow, but it’s so heavy it’s begun to settle.

I am in the loft, and it is cold. I had to move out of the spare room in the house, because it is now full of boxes from the other loft (the bigger one). I lay in bed this morning pondering on what to do:

I’ve had the pink-path/rock-face painting up in the lounge for a few weeks, and have picked enough holes in it to see where the werk is needed.

I have this painting that was started as far back as 2006 – it reads ‘Ne Travaillez Jamais’ a graffiti quote from the 1968 Paris événements. I spent a long time building up a wall-like ground, and then it stopped. I didn’t want to ruin all that werk, I wanted orange-red neon words, but I hadn’t a clue how to make them work on a contrasting green-ish ground. I still don’t.


Today is the day I start werk again on that wall. It is also the day I get on with the rock-face. First the wall: I found an old canvas sketch and sanded it down, drew out some rough words and painted them in.


I mixed up some mossy green paint and plastered it onto the canvas. The words are rougher than I’d wanted, but it’s just a sketch, an experiment, a tester. I need to try some methods of glow on top of green ground to see what works best.


With a shiny new no.1 brush and some Rose Madder paint I take on the pink neon path in the crack of the rock-face, hot soup for lunch.

2.45pm it is still snowing. There were foxes on the prowl in the field, so I had to lock up the chicken. It’s like Jollity Farm round here. Only without the jollity.



I just realised I turned the heater off when I went in earlier. No wonder my werk rate was slowing down. I sat the sinister crow on the easel, and gave his neon perch a going over with some rich, ruby red. Now I am struggling with SSSHH, still the white neon glow eludes me. I need inspiration. And a cup of tea.

I came back, I added a bit more glow. Then I had the bright idea of some shadows. Then I went too far.

I will stop and clean up now.

the white stuff

[WEDNESDAY 06 JANUARY 2010]

It started snowing last night, it is still snowing this morning. I was taking photos with the bobbins night-vision camera setting late last night, when I saw Monsieur Renard, our local fox scampering round the garden. His eyes lit up red when he looked straight at me, then the camera shutter scared him off.

I want to do some painting but I don't want to get snowed in and stuck out here for the next couple of days.

I sat myself down in the temporary studio/spare room with some white paint determined to increase the neon glow of 'SMILE'. But every chance I get I'm gazing out of the window at all the white stuff, or drifting off to check on the status of the trains.

By 3pm the pull of home was too much - off to the station I went, it took over 2 hours. It usually takes 30 minutes.

squalid-looking flies basking on the fence

[WEDNESDAY 22 JULY 2009]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
It is 3.55pm, I’ve just been doing one of those tense, close detail tasks, the kind that makes me hold my breath until I go blue in the face and start shaking uncontrollably. I had to scream to release the pressure.

Wildlife watch: Earlier this morning I stood and supped a cup of tea in the sun. I wasn’t the only one enjoying the warm rays – there was a gang of squalid-looking flies basking on the fence:

Also this morning, I brought SPQR out of stasis, and I’m pleased to report that after a couple of minor touch-ups, it looks ready to be unveiled to its benefactors. I will hang it in the house and consider it this evening, just to make sure.

I will be here for two days again this week. I have to say that I find this temporary set-up quite agreeable, it allows me to relax a bit more into the werk, rather than pressurising myself to get a certain amount done in one day.

There are top-secret werks to be done now, just as soon as I’ve had a cup of tea.

I’m back at werk, my brush loaded with Cobalt Blue and Cobalt Violet, painting up another violet-purple glow. It has some way to go before it reaches the level of SPQR, and there’s only a short time to get it there. But I cannot werk on a wet ground, so it must rest.

5.41pm: I’ve hung two paintings in the house – SPQR and that unnamed pink neon one. Time for a little pick-me-up – water with a drop of Herbas de Menorca chamomile liquor, it sounds vile but tastes a little like pastis. Not quite as good as pastis though.

Just been absorbed in another intense bout of activity: making the letters of ‘…Smile’ as white as can be. It is tense werk, so I feel I can allow myself another little pick-me-up: this time I opt for the Anis with some water. Much better, but that’s the last of the Anis.

It is 8.35pm: Following another period of white-glow rendering, I’ve carefully lifted the huge canvas down the ladder and it now sits in the hallway. It looks good, but not quite finished. I will pay it some viewing time this evening after tea, and werk out the next course of action.

My werk is done for today.

White Light

[WEDNESDAY 06 MAY 2009]
Today is all about white neon. I have had interest shown in a painting that has languished in an unfinished state for a number of months. Unfinished because I had not yet decided what colour the neon should be (this because I have not yet successfully painted neon over an existing ground). It sits at the top of the loft hatch, looming over the ladder, a monolithic 118cm x 165cm – A simple , heartfelt declaration: “I THINK OF YOU AND I SMILE”.

All that the potential buyer has seen of it is a view like this:


I have pointed out that it is unfinished, and that I will not be happy letting it go if it doesn’t meet my standards. But maybe I should put pride and artistic temperament aside and let “the customer” decide. It’s not a decision I take lightly – I’m not here for some capitalist joyride, but I do need to pay the rent. And eat.

This is all hypothetical really, because if the damn thing is too big for its prospective home, it will stay here. Still it’s got me fired up to ACTUALLY FINISH a painting, and I’m super keen to depict some serene white neon.

Aside: I neglected to charger Le Pod d’i. We’re running on red, so today I will mostly be listening to 6music. I am saving precious battery power for the dark hours of 10am to 1pm (when G**rg* L*mb and his relentless gooning taints the airwaves).

10.17am: I have been caught up in all this TALK of werk for too long. Time to DO. First, a bit of colour mixing to test which combinations mix with the greatest clarity.


1.30pm: It is DONE. I have been hard at werk filling in neon lettering.

Wildlife watch: I found the remains of a bird’s egg just outside the door. It is sad, but it is a beautiful delicate thing.


A spot of red neon painting, then more white neon. I have a couple of small canvases I started a while ago. This one reads SSSHH.


Today was all about white neon.

'The Artist' and 'The Process'

[WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2009]
It is 1.45pm, and I have made it through ‘til after lunch before even looking at this computer. Pats-on-the-back all round.

I have been working with great purpose, in contrast to last Wednesday, when… Well you know what happened last time...

I feel a lot more comfortable in my role as ‘the artist’ today. I have been reading Roxy by Michael Bracewell, and getting all nostalgic for my art school days, which has awakened my thirst for ‘the process’, and given me a much needed fresh impetus to create.

I propped this canvas on the easel, determined to bring it towards some form of completion.

And when I’d finished:

the iPod is running low on juice, so I’ve resorted to the wireless – 6Music, Adam Ant is on. This is a good thing.

Wildlife watch
Earlier, I stepped down the ladder for a breath of fresh air, and discovered 2 ducks looking round the garden. “There ain’t no pond here.” I told them, and they looked a little confused, and left.

3.45pm: I think I deserve a tea break whilst I contemplate my next move.

Injury count:
So far today I have cracked my shin on the ladder, giving me a nice bump and graze just below my knee. I have also smacked my head on one of the low beams of the pitched roof. The hazards of working in a cramped loft-space are many – though I have, thankfully, not yet taken a tumble down the hatch, despite my vertigo tempting me and taunting me every time I venture near.

Now you may be thinking: If you have vertigo, why loiter near the edge?
Here’s an explanation, in someone else's words:
“What is vertigo? Fear of falling? Then why do we feel it even when the observation tower comes equipped with a sturdy handrail? No, vertigo is something other than the fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us. It is the desire to fall, against which terrified, we defend ourselves.”
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. (1984: p56)

And now, it’s almost time to go. I’ll clean up the brushes, and clean my grubby hands, then I’m ready to catch the train to take me home to see my wife and cat.

Today has been a good day.

Temptations

[WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2009]

Today has started well. I was in the studio just after 9. Would have been earlier had I not stopped to try something out on the piano. And now Drive-In Saturday has just come on the stereo…

10.39am: For some reason my iPod thinks it is Christmas – It has just played The Knife Christmas Reindeer followed by France Gall Chasse-Neige. It is not snowing outside. It is pissing down with rain.

This is what is directly in front of me as I type.

As you can see, I don’t half take a crap photo (I tried taking 2 and they were both terrible, but I see no point in spending the next hour trying to get one shot in focus). I think the subject of the photo is testament to my strong work-ethic and self-control – these bottles have sat here since I moved in during August 2006.

From right to left we have:
Schnappe de Rosas (Rose Schnapps) – about a sip taken
Palo (unidentified brown liquour) – approx. 2 sips taken
Herbas de Menorca (a Camomile liquor) – worryingly half-drunk.
Anis (Ouzo) – half-drunk, French style, diluted with water
Pomada (apple schnapps,recommended served cold) – again half-drunk
Gin (no explanation necessary) – Unopened

Please observe, temptation hasn’t exactly been tapping on my shoulder, though I should point out that the majority of time I have spent in this ‘studio’ has been during the day (I could probably count the nights on one hand). So draw your own conclusions.

My hectic weekend seems to have landed me with a cold-sore – which is a nice thing to take home to the wife tonight. It brings to mind a conversation I overheard in a local charity shop: One of the old dears was talking to a little girl and commented that her mouth looked sore. Her accompanying Grandad piped up “Oh yes, she’s got a dose of herpes, haven’t you dear?” Silence...

3.15pm: I’ve run out of momentum.

Wildlife watch: I spy a heron across the field. I take a crap photo. Look there he is, lurking near the tropical fish farm, planning his supper.

In between all these exciting goings-on I still found time to make some headway on this new werk.