KRAJOBRAZ – THE NEW LANDSCAPE

Well, if I was to be honest then I’d have to say that what started off as a simple mission to knock out a few pot-boilers is proving to be anything but, and the whole venture has taken a surprising turn for the better! I suppose you find your stream of expansion often in the places you least expect, and I don’t know, perhaps I simply don’t have it in me to simply knock them out for a meal or two in return anyway..? So, the off/on toying with landscape painting since my first visits to Pojezierze Augustowsko-Suwalskie is beginning to gather pace in ways I least expected - propelling me into a completely new relationship with painting that I’ve only been able to dream about since I began painting again back in March! With a couple of canvases completed (as below), and four or five on the go which are truly beginning to look intriguing, for the first time in years, I feel as if I don’t have to compete with my previous output or to demonstrate what amounts to a safe repertoire of quality control – craftsmanship, skill and all that rubbish as an end in itself… I’m once again working as much for myself as I am for others. In production anyway, gone is the worry of selling, and the excitement of not knowing what’s going to happen from one brush stroke to the next – of testing yourself – pushing what you have in the way of talent as hard as you can - simply to do better, this’s what’s proving to be relevant – this is what matters to both you, as an artist, and those who are interested enough to want to share in what you do!

Still not counting chickens just yet however - It’s early days, and in the wee hours of the morning, when the demons are having a wail of a time, there still remains an almost inbred prejudice (as a painter of people for twenty odd years) in even considering touching Landscape Painting, let alone regarding it as serious… Stupid I know, and as Daniel so rightly pointed out the other night - making good paintings is what counts and lasts regardless of subject! Aye, he’s a clever lad for a translator!

Still, representing the landscape for a painter these days’ is undoubtedly a great deal more problematic than simply employing the skills involved in applying paint to canvas. Any certainty in the fact that the land, but particularly nature along with its uncontrollable power, unpredictability, and potential for cataclysmic extremes as the old Romantics used to view it, has anything to offer the artist in the way of exploration and experimentation seems to have long gone, leaving little more than a view of the landscape based on that left behind by the greats of the past, when it irrefutably did mean something beyond ‘nice’.

Seen through the eyes of Constable then - his England, through Corot and Monet, to Kiefer's Deutschland, perhaps more than any other genre, any inkling of a new perspective we may happen to be lucky enough to glimpse when approaching 'nature' today is almost always lost under the weight of its own tradition, with landscape painting more or less being shunned completely by serious painters to become the preserve of the amateur dauber. All in all, a place in which it is nigh on impossible then from which to view anything anew. And the perspective is no easier from here in Poland either.., but..?

Although I've certainly been drawn to the landscape often in the past, without much success in the way of producing anything more worthy than ‘home decoration’, then there is something immensely intriguing about the way this troubled land continues to sit within its own borders at the very centre of Central Europe and is engaged with by its people on a daily basis as a basic matter of course and inescapable need. The place could be described as Cambridgeshire without the chocolate box cottages or anything else Cambridgeshire has to offer bar its flatness. Beautiful without question, the Pojezierze Augustowsko-Suwalskie region of Poland is incalculable – its pine forests run deep, its numerous lakes unfathomable, its people clearly forever drunk on the vastness of its skies, (not to mention the vodka)! I think it was Paul Auster who described the skies of Kansas as being the only friend you’ve got in that colossal, flat, desolate place; well, I’m sure Pojezierze Augustowsko-Suwalskie is nothing like Kansas, but I’ve sometimes felt like this about its skies!

Who knows then..? I’m certainly drawn to the place, and for reasons I’m only just beginning to fathom, whether the results are significant or not - who cares – it’s got me painting in its ‘proper’ sense again at last..!

NEW PAINTINGS

Acrylic on Canvas 50X50

Acrylic on Canvas 56X45

‘THE OPPOSITE OF A CORRECT STATEMENT…

… is a false statement - The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth’ - Niels Bohr… A truer word.., and all that..! And, sometimes.., every so often, you can only reach your own truth by turning something you hold dear and fret about letting go completely on its head - or perhaps no more than onto its side is enough… But, the key is being able to let go… Impossible, or perhaps simply unwise, until such moments when we cock our heads to the left or to the right, or, when the blood is just about to pop the eyes from their sockets, we view the world upside-down through legs akimbo. And, while I suppose we don’t always know we’re pursuing something that doesn’t fit anymore until such eye-openers, and while the new perspective clicks into focus doesn’t mean that what was true once suddenly becomes a lie, the discovery, whether seismic or unassuming, involves a shift in direction regardless. Only then can we be confident in the knowledge that we are conveying the correct statement! For the time-being anyway…

WORDS TO THAT EFFECT:

‘For a change’, sunny for about a minute this morning, but the thick layer of mustard coloured cloud was back in abundance almost immediately again threatening more torrential rain – Still, at least the down-pours we had yesterday, and the rise in temperature (it’s +4 today), has washed away the four days of snow totally out of sight as if it had never happened!

And, since the move to Białystok, cocooned as I am without the internet in an impenetrable world of ‘foreign’ radio stations, as far as I’m concerned nothing has happened..? Having access to the internet only when I’m around at Daniel’s, then I’m thoroughly missing being able to listen to the BBC on a daily basis! It’s true, I’m not one for debating the news until one too many beers, so conversations here rarely involve topical up-to-the-minute chats on world events until it’s too late of an evening to sink in, so I really do miss it all being unveiled quietly in the background on the wireless while I’m working away in the studio, (I like to call it the studio as it helps the working process, but actually it’s Grzegorz’s kitchenette)… The fact is, I really haven’t a clue what’s going on in the world these days, but the alternative, in listening to Radio Białystok, perhaps has some hidden benefits in that my Polish just may be improving subconsciously as a consequence. I say subconsciously as I can’t recall anything at will, but as an example of the unknown power of even an aging mind like mine, while in a taxi with Dominika the other night, I involuntarily started to recite Polish words and phrases I hadn’t previously been taught or even thought I’d heard before. I hadn’t a clue what they meant, but Dominika assures me that this is a great step forward in grasping a new language..? This may be so, but it still doesn’t alter the fact that I’ll never be able to truly get to grips with this impossibly crazy lingo enough to have a real conversation in Polish past the usual small talk of strangers or asking for a beer politely at the bar – never!

Aha, I thought I’d never see the sun again – it’s just found a crack, or fingers crossed, perhaps even a great hole in this bloody perpetual leaden sky, to cast the perfect light through these weather scoured windows to paint by..! So, czy mozemy przelozyć nasze spotkanie – dziś nie Niedziela – Bóg mówi Paul działa – or words to that effect..?P.S.. Shit, that was short-lived - it’s snowing yet again!

THE PENNY DROPPED TODAY

No, I’m not a ‘rubbish’ painter, but I have been wasting far too much time and effort experimenting and searching for ‘the magic formula’ to fast track toward completion, when in fact today, and perhaps because of recent drawing endeavours, I made the decision to forget it and paint using the tried and tested use of the brush, getting stuck in, and needless to say, it paid dividends. I’m not the kind of painter who is satisfied by flashy techniques or convinced by ‘happy accidents’, and have realised, I never will be. I’ve simply got to grasp that the way I work involves time and patience. The journey of discovery is personal to each and every artist, and whether that involves a god-dam clever brush stroke to ignite the imagination, a feature film, or in my case when it comes to painting, building up layers of both paint and meaning to express a mood or concept, then so be it!

A SOLID DAY’S GRAFT TODAY

Generally, in terms of painting, the work since the move has resulted in being no more than interesting, if fairly promising, one offs. Personally frustrating, this has worryingly become a recurring theme since my initial return to painting back in March - a disparate out-put to say the least, resulting in most of the ‘finished’ canvases finding their way back to the drawing board while I continue to fumble about trying to confidently grasp a meaningful angle to run with. In consequence, to resolve this and in spite of the fact I sometimes feel I’m forcing the issue too much, I continue to persist regardless by locking myself away in the studio as much as I can without going completely barmy! I know from experience that without such long periods of slogging it out, the work will never click however, and anyway, it’s easier to perform such a task here than it was in Warsaw, as the bright lights of Białtstok appear a mere 40 Watts compared to the relative brightness supplied by the national grid back in the capital, (there’s only two bars in the whole city worthy of a mention).

Which reminds me, on a technical note, I’ve had to deck the studio out with one of those white light jobs which omit 300 Watts while using just 60 Watts, this, just to combat the gloom of the perpetual dark days which filter in through the windows. It works a treat while working, but after the long hard slog of the day, my eyes never quite seem to adjust to the normal light of the flat, and while cooking a curry the other evening, with squinting eyes to check out the consistency and colour of my only forte in cooking, I had to get so close to the boiling cauldron of the stuff that my nose ended up as extra seasoning. The pain was strangely delayed, but when it arrived it had me diving over to the kitchen sink like Gordon Banks defying Pele’s sly goal-post header back in 1970 (although Monty’s double 1973 improbable FA cup save is of course the greatest of all time) and drowning myself under the cold running tap for what seemed like the full 90 minutes plus injury time! Conversely, the curry wasn’t quite as enjoyable after the event as I’d hoped, for all the pain was more or less just a numb throb by the time I sat down to eat, each time I lifted a folk-full of the stuff to my lips, the radiant heat re-ignited my nose…

Anyway, I digress.., as well as thrashing out the paintings, which, although looking good, as already said, still lack something in the way of thematic consistency, and until such a time the penny drops will remain a thorn in the side, I’ve also gotten back to doing a fair bit of drawing again. I’d quite forgotten how enjoyable the process of simply putting pencil to paper can be – and how direct – thank the Lord for small mercies! There’s no angst about how to produce here - I simply set about drawing without worrying about any of the technical difficulties which accompany painting (a couple of examples below). I suppose that’s the trouble with painting – so much to want to do – so little time and recourses to do it in… It involves multiple choices – time consuming choices which can’t so easily be reversed, or erased by the use of a putty-rubber..!

RECENT DRAWINGS:

( Working Titles: 'Drawings from the Net' )

Pencil on A4 Paper

Pencil on A4 Paper

MONEY FOR NOTHING…

… I wish, but there’s always something to pay..?

It seems being a native speaker of English in these parts is still a bit of a rarity, and without even opening my mouth, word has clearly gotten around already that I’m one of them.

Really needing to push the artwork at the moment though and the recent approaches from three people wanting ‘English Conversation’ to help develop their day to day conversational skills, has possibly come at slightly the wrong time for me. Being more money than enough coming in to pay the rent however, with zero income right now, I shouldn’t really turn it down, but may put it back till February since I’m relatively safe enough until then to push on with the artwork - I’ve got the possibly of an exhibition here in Białystok at the end of December which would have to be put off otherwise for christ’s-sake.

Mostly, Conversation Work is both enjoyable and easy money though - as I keep being reminded, but must confess, I always feel a little uneasy about getting paid for something I would normally, and feel should, give gladly and in abundance for nothing… It’s a bit like being a prostitute of the blarney really, only, from where the words would normally be gushing, there’s left a certain dryness in these forced situations, with me, often desperate for some easy flowing exchange of dialogue, resorting to ‘K Y Jelly’ for the vocal cords! In other words, where socially I love nothing more than a good natter with everyone and anyone, in an official capacity, I’m not altogether sure or convinced that I’m cut out for it? We’ll see though – I may still have little option come February!

FIRST SNOW – CONTINUAL BLIZZARDS TILL MARCH NEXT YEAR

So this is what greeted me first thing this morning when I opened the front door on my way to the local super-market to stock up on warming Zurek and to buy my weekly ‘lucky’ Lotek ticket… True enough, it’s been as cold as cockles for the last two days or so, but it still came as a bit of a shock to see three or more inches covering of the crisp white stuff this morning… I mean, is it still not merely Autumn..? Apparently not, and there was clearly a hush and lack of joyful seasonal hoots in the air as adults and children alike shuffled along in silence, their chins held high against the blizzard in stoic recognition and resignation of a hot summer’s passing! This being my second winter in Poland, I now know from experience that this first fall of snow is more than likely just the beginning of one long snowstorm cemented in the calendar till mid March next year!

Just checked the thermometer on the window outside to see whether it’s warm enough for this stuff to melt – minus four it says! Ah well, time to dig out the winter woollies and the Soviet style army hat which was bought for me last year from the flee market in the old national stadium across the Wisła, turn up the central heating and pop on a pan of Zurek – Like the locals, absolutely no childish joy or thoughts of snowball fights or sledging here from me either – Roll on the Spring thaw is all I can think of right now.., and perhaps the unlikely event of six numbers turning up on the Lotek tonight!