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..!