A new tool

This time of year is usually when I am having more studio time. It’s when I get to work on my painting without worrying about events.

My studio isn’t huge and I noticed that it felt even smaller because I had a lot of unfinished paintings on canvas stacked around that had become unusable because I’d used too many layers of acrylic paint and the surfaces were too bumpy and rough.

So for the first time I decided to use the electric sander we’d inherited from my father in law. Here I am with the canvas against the wall. I found it was a lot easier with the painting on the floor with something form placed underneath. It was noisy and hard on the hands but working in short bursts I made good progress going over all those bumps.

It was really pleased with the result apart from ruining one canvas where I cut through to the other side right at the edge. I started to be a bit more careful after that happened.

After painting with gesso I had 5 new usable canvases to create new work on. I buy good quality and not cheap canvases these days so am glad I am able to use them

The surface was so much smoother and though there isn’t the weave of the canvas it felt more like the smoothness of paper which I like. Starting with a blue and yellow background felt like the best way to start these.

Large paintings - an update

I’ve been also working on these 4 large paintings. I’ve been struggling with these for a long time. I actually started them last year and had the idea of ‘ finishing them’ which is completely the wrong way for me to approach painting. Having the idea of how the end will look when painting makes me tighten up and affects what I do.

I think they just felt a little safe like I hadn’t pushed myself.

To get somewhere interesting I know I need to try something that will risk destroying what I already have. So, headphones on, with music without lyrics ( soundtrack from tales of the loop) I mixed larger amounts of paint and tried to paint as if I was beginning and this was layer one.

After a bit of warming up it worked and brought back the kind of looseness of brushwork I want in my work . I felt the tingle in my body as I looked at the colours and marks looking so much more exciting.

I moved from one to the next painting and was in that flow state artists are always looking for .

I know that when I want to complete a painting, rather trying to work things out logically - say , by looking at the proportion of different values - what I need to do is get into the right state of mind to paint without that part of my brain . Because, all that stuff, all those rules they’re in there and I know instinctively what’s going to work if I don’t over think every mark.

One of the great things about painting is that you learn about yourself and how you work . Even if later you forget all this and find yourself having to relearn the same thing again a year later with a kind of familiarity - Ah yeah, this is what I do.