Having twice wanted to abandon this work, I am suddenly feeling my way into the painting, deciding it WILL work, and getting excited about the details next week. A supporter on Twitter (and buyer, thank you David) of my work, suggested the composition was too cluttered and that it looked more like a Bedsit – et voila, a title came into my head. From my experience of living in bedsits, life is indeed cluttered and rather than paint an elegant dinner party I would rather portray what is perhaps more real for most of us these days, smaller homes, clutter and familiarity. I am still thinking of adding something more at the front to the work, possibly some oranges and/or a blue and white teatowel as Mediterranean colours always work for me. On the other hand that might just be too cluttered…. The toaster will stay after all (nearly got axed last week!) but it is now smaller and slimmer. Will probably be redder too as time goes on. Lastly, I will be painting a burnt sienna glaze over the skin tones when the paint is drier as at the moment the poor young woman has the look of a…
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A new piece, relatively small (14 x 10″) to compliment Should I Stay Or Should I Go and Waiting, Wishing,Wanting which are both on the website. Again, a quieter work after the excitement of the water in The Pink Hat! I need a bit of a rest before I contemplate painting water again, much as I loved tackling that subject. I think I need an object in the foreground of this painting as the area in the right hand corner is a bit dead at the moment. I don’t want to overcrowd the composition but think perhaps a bowl with a couple of oranges in it to add colour. I was toying with putting a glass of wine there but realised I have quite a wine theme going on with a lot of my work, so perhaps not with this work…. I feel this girl is making a special effort with the preparation of meal, hence the title but am open to any suggestions as always for titles. Really looking forward to getting in the bright Mediterranean of the peppers and the toaster … Will probably add some red to the hair too to link the work. A lot of…
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A quote for today : ‘Art is the only way to run away without leaving home’ . When I am in my studio space I completely cut myself off from the world, with or without music in the background. I need this space for myself, my body space, my privacy. Without it, I can’t really function properly and find it almost impossible to start a new work, let alone finish it. But then to mention another quote by Frida Kahlo: ‘At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can’. Hmmmm, not sure about that one at the moment … It’s a difficult balance sometimes getting it right as an artist; we need to be alone in order to create, but we also need the social interaction with other artists/people, otherwise we can feel very isolated and go into a downward spiral of negativity. To The Pink Hat now. I felt the blues of the pool were overwhelming the painting too much and the wall our lady was leaning on was too grey in tone. The hat looked bland and generally speaking, I wanted to throw the work out the window… However, I have battled…
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