Two steps back

[WEDNESDAY 01 FEBRUARY 2012]
When I re-commenced werk on 'Home Sweet Home' this afternoon I was happy with what was on the canvas.  But then, the more I werked the worse it got.  Do 'this' to rectify it, didn't work. Do 'that' to make it better, even worse.  I almost resorted to scrubbing the whole thing out... Perhaps when I return next week it will look better than it does now.  Or perhaps I will understand where I went wrong and just a bit of remedial werk will rectify the wasted time today.

It is so bloody cold in the garret, despite having the ineffectual heater at full blast.  Slowly the chill creeps, from the feet up. I can't feel my toes and my legs are numb.  Just a quick bit of werk on that building, using up a smear of left-over Cadmium Red paint in a few of the balconies.  Done.

I sat and I looked...

[WEDNESDAY 18 JANUARY 2012]
Such good intentions can only be broken:  I was in the studio early enough, the 'Home Sweet Home' canvas was fixed on the easel, a cup of tea was made, and I sat on the stool and I looked.

Minutes passed, and I sat and I looked. I put some music on, and I sat and I looked. I switched on the computer, and I sat and I looked. I flicked through a book about neon, and I sat and I looked. I went back through my notebook of the past few years, and I sat and I looked. I found reference photos on the old computer, and I sat and I looked again.  Then I came back to the house and made another cup of tea, and bashed away on an acoustic guitar for a bit.  By now it was 11 o'clock. An idea: PING! Back to the studio I trot.

And the werk begins...

Is it right? Is it wrong? Is there a wrong when it can be painted over at any time? Plagued with doubt I retire for lunch.

My idea was to split the orange and green glow where the heart and border meet, bringing in some darkness, rather than making a murky mess by mixing the 2 colour palettes.  I will leave it for now and werk on it a later date.

As the afternoon progresses I am werking simultaneously on the Orange neon and the green neon, I stop to pick up a brush.  Now which one should I use...

By now most of the canvas area has had a fresh coat of paint applied - There is something incredibly sensual about silky smooth brush strokes in wet, glistening paint. Even green paint.

graft and contentment

[WEDNESDAY 11 JANUARY 2012]
I have returned after 2 months away from the studio.

I was sat at the easel by 10am, I did some blue neon painting and was back in for a break by 10.30am.  Yes, a mere 30 minutes of painting before a break.  But 30 minutes of good painting...

On my return I continued with the blue neon morse-code, it was like I hadn't been away, until the RSI kicked in in my wrist.  Alas, I am not match-fit at the moment, but happy with my work, I put the canvas aside.

'Home Sweet Home' is now propped up on the easel, and I have been searching in vain for some photographic inspiration to get the areas where green and orange neon meet looking right.  Still searching.

I eat soup and a sandwich for my lunch (like Andy Warhol) and now it's back to the studio...

Considering I'm a bit out of practice, the afternoon session was highly productive.  Little success with the green/orange neon glow diffusion, but good progress with the rest of the orange neon lettering.

I finish at 19.08 with my brushes cleaned and a general feeling of contentment at a good day's graft.

extra-curricular painting

Whilst I've not been able to clock-in for Wednesday Painting over the last few weeks, I have found time to set up a temporary studio at home for a spot of remedial painting.  Good job too, as I had to get this finished for our friends Paul and Sarah's wedding on the 3rd December.

here's a quick snap of the finished piece

(I'll post more photos when I have some time)



If you would like to commission a neon commemorative date painting for a wedding, birthday, anniversary or special day, please email iheartneon[at]gmail.com to discuss your requirements.

Wednesday Painting SUSPENDED

ATTENTION: Wednesday Painting has been temporarily suspended.

Owing to the looming spectre of Christmas, I will be mostly playing the role of Santa's only-elf-in-the-workshop, making wooden jigsaws for all the children so that they may have broad smiles on their faces come Christmas day.

Normal service will resume on days when I have spare time to get into the studio, and I will also be doing extra remedial painting werk at home.

wet-on-wet

[WEDNESDAY 09 NOVEMBER 2011]
Today is Wednesday and I am dressed up in my finest painting outfit.  I feel quite fresh considering it was a late night last night.  If you had passed by, you would have seen me sketching out a new sea-scape on that large canvas. Then slurping down a night-cap of hot lemon and ginger tea with a tot of rum (poor man's hot whisky toddy?).

This morning I werked on the meeting of 2 contrasting neon colours: the bright green and the orange.  It will need more werk when it is dry.  Having focussed almost completely on 'Home Sweet Home' for the past 3 sessions, I have put it aside.

This afternoon I re-started werk on the blue neon morse-code. Laying on the paint nice and thick - rich and deep Phthalo Blue - until the canvas won't take any more wet-on-wet paint action.

And then I sit, and I wonder, and I think: what I can do now to fill another hour or so?

There is a large canvas begging to be started, and so I must oblige.  Out comes the ink and the brush and to werk I go.

ten minus fifteen

[WEDNESDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2011]
I award myself 10 points for being in the studio just after 9am and sanding down the primed canvas.

I then deduct 15 points for straying and checking my email and spending an hour on the computer.  Procrastination is a time-sapping thing.

I must get on, I need to leave early today, and my precious few hours are dwindling as a sit here and type.

I made great progress with 'Home Sweet Home', painting intuitively (why can't it always be that way): first green neon and then the deeper, darker reds of the orange neon.

bright green neon lines

[WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2011]
There is a break in the (torrential) rain.  I must make a run for the studio.  I shall return.

I have been a good Wednesday Painter and I have werked right the way through until lunch time.  So I eat a huge plate of food and can't move for 40 minutes.  Coffee will perk me up and get me back to the easel.

Back at the easel: I continued to paint bright green neon lines.

And then there was just enough time to put a first coat of primer on that big blank canvas.

Day of discipline

[WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2011]
Today I am determined to get painting first, then do all the other crap during breaks later in the day.  I'm going outside, I will, hopefully, be some time.

I return, with a few hours' orange neon painting under my belt, and a hunger in my tummy.

---SNIPPET OF INTERNAL MONOLOGUE---

- Discipline yourself Wednesday Painter, you can't sit here all afternoon supping tea watching the internet.
- Just let me finish my cup of tea and I'll be off.

---MONOLOGUE ENDS---

Another pass of the 'Home Sweet Home' canvas, making those neon letters bright white.  So bright I gotta wear shades.

at 18.39 I clean up the brushes and switch off the lights.

The last hours were spent on green neon - fluid, easy painting - a pleasure.

Discipline is good.

Tricolores and dirty hands (eventually)

[WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2011]
I curse the things I always leave until Wednesday morning to get done:  today these included printing off directions to collect the 'Wish You Were Here' canvas from Manchester, with a convoluted road trip via here there and everywhere thrown in; emailing and phoning various people to meet/visit during the trip; constructing a CD cover for a belated birthday present; checking a L'Amour Electronique mix before it goes live; plus various other odd jobs.  Consequently I greeted the studio just after midday.

And even then I didn't crack on with the neon painting.  Instead I began some new Tricolore posters for the aforementioned L'Amour Electronique.

It is lunch time now.  I need sustenance. Then the painting.

Or not.  The time is 17:22, I have done precious little painting, except for adding some acid-y pale blue glow to the morse-code.  I feel frustrated and listless.  I have about an hour and 40 minutes left to do something worthwhile.  Here I go...

18.10: I. GIVE. UP.  But not before I've got my hands dirty blackening 12 sheets of A4 with indian ink, and painting another Tricolore.  The black paper is for a mock-up of a proposal I'm waiting to hear back about.  The Tricolore to add to the collection above.

pensioner chic

[WEDNESDAY 05 OCTOBER 2011]
...And the Wednesday Painter hobbled into view, aided by a vintage NHS-issue walking-stick...

I came a cropper the other day and severely buggered up my ankle.  It's looking a bit swollen and is all black and blue, but I can just about walk on it now, so it can't be broken, can it?

The worst thing is trying to get up the ladder into the studio, I've only done it once so far today.  Looks like I may be stuck up there for some time when I go back.  For now I am in the house, projecting and marking out new designs on canvas.

I'm now off to the studio for the afternoon shift...

Cooped up in the loft, the tension builds up, and I nearly go stir crazy.  I realise I need a break from painting about every hour just to let me eyes adjust and the rest of me relax.  It is intense werk this neon painting, but the blue morse-code is really beginning to glow.

rich, deep, velvety reds

[WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2011]
Back to the Wednesday Painting then...  I had yet more paid work to do first thing, then I cleaned my filthy bicycle, and then the usual email admin.

The creative werk did not begin until midday, and the painting not until 2pm.  I've been putting together a submission for an exhibition: deadline 30 September. The details are secret, but it will involve 12 small canvases, laid out in sequence (as in this sketch).

I returned to 'Home Sweet Home', I find I can werk on the slightly wet layer of last week, though if left for a day or 2 longer, the canvas would have to be rested.  Today I gave it some rich, deep, velvety reds and I brought in the surrounding blackness.

There's no place like home

[THURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2011]
The Wednesday Painter has been away.  The Thursday Painter has stepped in for a day to get things started again.  After a couple of hours' paid werk, he primed that big new canvas.  He will take lunch and then begin the creative pursuits in earnest.

A productive afternoon followed, werking away on 'Home Sweet Home'.

radio head

[THURSDAY 01 SEPTEMBER 2011]
The time is 11.35am, I have been doing all manner of crap computer admin stuff this morning.  I am going to paint now, as lord knows I've done precious little of that this summer.  Here I go then...

Werking on 'Home Sweet Home', I took a break to make a brief appearance talking to Mark Radcliffe on 6music for 'The Chain' feature*.  Managed to get a website plug in.  Just logged on to find a spike of about 1,800 page views at just after 2pm.  I should go on the radio more often!

Back to the painting now though...


It just wasn't happening, so I did some constructive prep-werk: A big, new, blank canvas awaits the return of the Wednesday Painter.

* Which I, er, sort of borrowed a bit for the L'Amour Electronique blog