The week that was

Here is some evidence of the things I have been up to:

I delivered this ( one of 5) to The Art Sale, to be held 5-6 September in Hamilton

Bought myself these and they make me happy

Took him to A&E because he has sprained a finger and knee. We thought they might be broken. Shew!Hobbit feet!

Started this.....

...and it turned into this.

I liked the start so much, I started this....

..and left it here.

This was a demo of a quick start for Eve.

Bad photo, but this is where it is at now.

I am listening to the new Broods album, Evergreen, and Angus and Julia Stone's latest album. Clearly it's a brother-and-sister band week.  Funny how stuff like that happens, sometimes.

Holiday in my head

I have always had a very vivid imagination. My brain likes to hold images and my hand likes to manipulate them into paintings that show me how I feel.The words come after.

 I saw a quote by Edward Hopper that said " If I could say it in words there would be no need to paint it". Sometimes the painting helps me articulate the issue.

This blurry painting is , on the surface, of  a poor rural settlement alongside a railway line. Quite depressing and without any discernible features. A miss mash of shacks, makeshift homes, power lines and not much else.  We saw hundreds of similar locations on our road trip from Cape Town to Johannesburg and back. From the comfort of the front seat of a luxury car, these vistas seemed surreal. I photographed them , adding yet another layer of distance between myself and the grim reality . Layer upon  layer of glass. I found it difficult to look without that filter .

What this painting represents is my reluctance to focus closely on the grimness and reality of that existence. I don't want to see that by sheer luck of circumstance, I was born into the privilege of being privileged. I am educated, solvent, healthy, employed, capable of getting myself out of any hole I have dug, I have skills and I don't have to live there. Poverty is bleak.

So I paint it...all blurred shape , colour and line....the only way I can make sense of it. I am not sure what will become of this painting, but I will paint more and maybe they will one day help. I have a whole holiday of images in my head  to make sense of.A lifetimes work.

oil on canvas
70cm w x 50cm h

Things a fish told me

Ever watched the film" Finding Nemo"?  You should. Dory ( the stupidly smart blue fish ) suggests "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" as a solution to one of Nemo's existential problems ( you know, the ones that go " Who and I? where am I going? How am I going to get there? How am I going to find my way? "). And I agree. Sometimes, just keep swimming, or in my case, just keep painting ,is the only way to make any kind of progress or find any kind of answer to whatever question I am supposed to be asking. In the doing, the solution is found.

Just keep doing. Whatever it is that you do, do it. And if you don't know what it is you are supposed to be doing, just do anything. Start somewhere. Try writing, or crafting or gardening or swimming or teaching or singing...whatever, just keep doing. And if you write, craft etc and are stuck, just do it some more or a little differently.

Now where was I?

Ah, yes. This week I have been getting back into painting. I am not sure how to distill all my ideas onto canvas, but sometimes I just have to make a start and see where I go. Mistakes are made but I love fixing them and I also loves the discoveries made whilst mistaking. Also, sometimes mistakes are just that. Cock-ups made, acknowledged and then set aside as I tackle the next thing.Just keep swimming.

Which one is the cock-up, I hear you ask. Ha! Never telling!

A selection of the starts, the In-progress, the complete and the details, in no particular order.

BTW, the other great fish movie was " A Fish called Wanda" . Also highly recommended.