17 March 2020
Ominous skies, cautious times
In this time of uncertainty there is nothing better than to keep painting. This picture, as someone noted to me, looks as ominous as the nightly news. A Southerly swept in today like a witch. This study does indeed feel a bit ominous but it has nothing to do with anything except how the motif appeared to me the other night. No need to add more dark drama than necessary these days. I like it because it speaks of a moment at the beach when a turbulent sky roared in overhead within minutes and left me frantically trying to pin it down before the rains came. When a picture refers to a particular space of time and mood, no matter how sloppy or rough-looking, it has at least a small chance at authenticity. I guess for that I like it enough.
And roaring in like a storm over Europe is the new virus where cases are cropping at an alarming rate. In Lombardy Italy, in particular, old people are dying in hospitals and apartments all over the city and people everywhere hysterical. They are talking of lockdowns whereby people cannot leave their homes. A friend in Milan is as petrified as a friend in East Sussex UK. I suppose it was inevitable that a pandemic would eventually arrive upon the world scene. Here too, cases of this new virus are popping up everywhere. What to do? Keep painting, I think to myself. Life, like a making picture, has an unknown end.
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