17 July 2022

simpletons using paintbrushes for crutches


Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads,  8 July 2022, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm


Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads,  8 July 2022, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm


From last week is a curious set of studies. The Winter bloom has kicked in, and with a small moon the light becomes electric both in the East and Western sky.

These all feel a little unfinished which is OK because I think of them as studies anyway. Yet sometimes the motif is so rich with colourful possibilities, and because it changes so quickly, I just want to hop aboard like a commuter catching a red double-deck bus in London. The speed of execution might seem frantic to an observer but to the painter it is just a colourful pin wheel spinning easily always just beyond one's reach. It's also a double-edged sword that slices through both catastrophe and serendipity in one blow. 

These four were done on the same evening. The one just below is my favourite, one that works completely I believe. The others possess elements in each one individually which feel quite sexy and appealing but they don't quite hold up as a 'unified whole' which is always the goal. I cannot remember the order in which they were painted either but my favourite was likely made first judging by the colour of the sea. 

So again, for me, in this series, the trick is to paint quickly, seizing the motif by the throat if one can, and trusting one's intuitive sense of craft which is basically the whole of one's own painting experience, unless of course they're simpletons and they've painted and painted but learned nothing. 


Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads,  8 July 2022, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm



Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads,  8 July 2022, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm


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