Wed, 23 Nov 2005
It's been a busy week...
It's time to catch up. I have had a good couple of days painting which feels good. However, my manner of working is so laden with an anxiety to get it right that I am exhausted. I have been making drastic decisions on how far to take a piece, layering, daubing and scrubbing back, with the result that I no longer have what I had at the beginning of the day, and a feeling of loss ensues. In normal life, I often deliberate too much, being overly critical in a desire for perfection first time. I have been reading An Archetypal Constable (by Peter Bishop; Amazon "recommended" this book to me based on my buying patterns) in which the author goes into some detail on the effect of "dewiness" in Constable's paintings. Constable's vision of England was one of a rich, fertile land, with little evidence of an encroaching Industrial Revolution. An almost spiritual respect for a land that gives us nourishment in all its forms pervade his famous scenes. I have been struggling with the effect of moisture, not the fertile, verdant vistas of Mr C, but the cold moistness of dark woods and composted bark. I have been splattering and spraying layers of varnish over thin washes of ink, sponging it back, so that when the light hits the surface it has varying degrees of refraction, illuminating in places and yet diffusing in others. I know I am not quite there yet...

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