Ever accidentally dropped a tin of paint down the stairs?…I just have.
The mind, the imagination, the terror, is all focused in slow-motion.
All I could do was stand helpless and stiffly on the stepladder, wide-eyed in stunned, expletive silence and observe the totally random bounce of the tin as it's acrylic white contents decided where to splish, splash, splosh, on the carpet on the walls and eventually on Emily's brown suede boots that had carefully positioned themselves in the perfect spot in the hallway below, to receive the final vestiges of wicked white dribble from this cantankerous tin and with particular evil impressive skill, land, perhaps even laughing, the right way up.
Serendipity?…not!
Having restored, designed and built hundreds of gardens, I actually have grown to love weeds…and having read architecture for three years, I love playing with perspective that is incongruous and doesn't actually work…
It was just such a lovely civilised Saturday evening…with a close school friend, since the age of seven, his family and others…greeted warmly with champagne, quail eggs, canapes…and a string quartet in the drawing room.
As we left in the early hours from their Surrey home, he showed me an oil painting he and his wife commissioned from me twenty years ago. They are both geologists and I remember wanting to evoke the feeling of the earth, striation and layering. It took eight months to complete.
He showed me a specialist geolists tool within the picture that I had no knowledge of or intention of painting while creating the work. I do however, remember 'arriving in the zone' while painting. I so look forward to similar experiences again in my studio in France.
It's morning, it's snowing and settling now…a killer sore throat and a cold…and it's all beautiful…
Just returned…from an early morning walk on the beach with Smartie. It cleared my head and got me thinking. It's too easy to be negative and I'm not a negative person. Striking a balance in this blog between discourse and diatribe has been an eye opener for me.
This blog, this diary, is helping me to understand where I am in the art world. No one owes me a living and I am very fortunate to be in a position where I will be able to paint with fewer distractions. I've been stuck inside decorating this house to sell and to move to France. I'm an outdoor person and things will change for the better.
We want to simplify our lives and add meaning and this is all a major change for me and my wife Emily…and Smartie…this is really where this blog begins…
