THUD!

[WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2012]
Out in the studio and raring to go.  I cracked straight on with the blue 'morse code' painting, determined to get the glow along the edges looking better, and to get the blackness looking deeper and darker.  I ended up with it propped up on two paint tins against the garage door - giving me the opportunity to get some much needed distance from the canvas.

Things were going well and after adding a little glint of light to each of the dots and dashes, I retired up to the loft to clean my brushes. 

And then THUD! I dropped everything and rushed down the ladder to find the canvas face down in the dust and dirt.

A minor clean up operation ensued, removing specks of dust and grit from the fresh paint - this isn't the first time this has happened, so you would think I would have already learned my lesson.  But no, I curse myself and do my best to clean up what had been a pristine coating of paint.  The painting is now safely on the wall in the house, hopefully away from any more dust and crud...

After lunch I gave my mind a bit of a wander with some Sub/conscious drawings. The result: more animals, clowns and speed demons spilling from my brain.

I need a change from painting neon, and with just an hour or so before I head home, I render the balconies on the Le Corbusier canvas in jolly shades of blue and yellow, as they are on the actual building.

hasty actions

[THURSDAY 07 JUNE 2012]
I am a day late to the studio at her majesty's behest. Though even then I didn't take the full 2 days off to join in the Jubilee festivities/banalities. In fact I pretty much avoided it all as best I could.

To break myself back in this Thursday morning, I set to making another batch of 'Sub/conscious drawings'. The results left me baffled and bemused, and one particular drawing made me laugh out loud. Can you guess which one?

And now for my next trick!  The blue 'morse code' is taken in hand and given some care and attention.  I'm yearning to get this one finished in the next few weeks, so I'm in the mood to try certain hasty actions which will hopefully pay off.  Today I smothered the darker areas of glow in Phthalo blue, and knocked back some areas where the light catches on the craggy rock-face.

Don't want to go too far, so I leave it there. And move on to the '...RUGS&...' canvas, to which I lay down a pale pink border to the letters and blend it inside and out.  Mainly to rid it of any leftover and unwanted pencil marks from the initial sketch. Still time after this to block in a quick layer of deep and luxurious crimson red.

I leave a tired and satisfied Wednesday-cum-Thursday Painter.

let out a scream/let off steam

[WEDNESDAY 23 MAY 2012]
Last week I went to Paris to see a neon exhibition, and so I did not partake in any Wednesday Painting. So it follows that I was itching to get back to the studio this morning.

It is now 5.26pm and since 9.30 this morning I have been mostly painting the '...RUGS&...' canvas, with regular breaks to let out a scream/let off steam when the intricate brushwerk all got too much.

I am pleased to report spring has finally arrived, or maybe we have just skipped straight to summer.  On Monday I was still working in thermal underwear, today it has been hot and humid, and I'm almost expecting a storm to hit as I attempt to cycle to the station as I make my way homewards.

As a distraction from that intense brushwerk, I trundled down the shed and completed three 'Sub/conscious' drawings. I am very often amused and baffled as to where such imagery comes from, but then I conclude that it's all somewhere up there inside my head just waiting to spill out.  This is what spilled out today.

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.

Scrawlings and Rugs

[WEDNESDAY 04 APRIL 2012]
It all started so well: sketching out a new neon design on a new canvas and then a break to do some email/internet errands. I moved some canvases back out to the studio and finished off a lo-fi scrawling I made yesterday with a touch of watercolour.

[not sure where it came from, but at some point I was possibly thinking of Numan, hence "Gary". Adding the shock of bleached-blonde hair seemed like the obvious final step. There will be more lo-fi subconscious/conscious drawings in the near future]

And now?  Now I am hungry for my lunch and I must eat before I get on with the afternoon shift.  But I've been stuck at this computer screen for the past hour or so, doing this and that and the other.  ENOUGH!

I ate some soup.

It was not Campbell's Condensed though.

Afternoon: My first proper bit of painting consisted of touching up the "rock-face" where the blue glow is leaking out of the dark chasm.  I didn't do much, and I will continue next time.

Instead of returning to all those old, half-finished canvases, I stuck the fresh new one on the easel and commenced painting in around the words which will be depicted as deep-red neon. As you can see I am possibly thinking about jacking all this painting in and opening a carpet shop.