ILJ
Evening Prayers Brunswick Heads, 5 July, 2021, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm
FBS
Evening Prayers Brunswick Heads, 5 July, 2021, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm
Evening Prayers Brunswick Heads, 5 July, 2021, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm
After a few weeks of rain the sky seems to be settling down again. It has been cold though it doesn't change my habits. There isn't a lot to say about these except that now, looking at them, I perceive that they have something of the winter chill in them. The colours somehow never seem to warm up on the canvas board, the palette hovers over the cool side.
I like the top one very much. The other two are OK; interesting maybe, but they don't set the armchair on fire. Anyway, I just always try to keep working whilst not thinking in the moment about whether or not they are any 'good' or not. There is not enough time for that. And once that voice begins to chatter, the dreaded duality kicks in, and I am no longer free to be 'absent' in the moment. The Zen wise guys from the East always warn against this.
Suddenly, I see the pictures as pupils who the school teacher tries to discipline during recess hour. Like the teacher, I have no real control over what comes up while painting. For me that is the beauty of it all and why I paint in front of a changing Nature. Like the wild pupils, the paintings come out just as the moment demands they come out. Later on, of course I begin to see them, really see them, then judge them too.
But I am more like the benevolent school teacher who looks upon his unruly pupils with a great empathy and patience. I have learned this slowly over time. When a picture is right, even if it appears unfinished, and unruly, it's done.
Patience is everything.
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