I’ve painted a little this weekend yet don’t have much to show for it. Most of the weekend was consumed in crossing off jobs. Whether that was the filing; the tax; reading the article the vet supplied re: saffron’s cystitis; hemming the cotton sateen slip; remembering to send dad a photo of his orchid; checking out the new bustimetables. All little things which mounted up and a weekend disappeared.
I’m ending the weekend with two of the most wonderful words in the English language - southerly change! My dad enjoys cloud gazing… so I thought this would be an appropriate picture. Taken while mum and I were driving back from Canberra from the car. As a consequence it’s not the sharpest image in history. Still, it captures the mood. That drive went from heavy, visibility affecting rain to roads flooded with sunlight. While the clouds were mostly too dense for imaginary creatures, they compensated by being suitable moody and intense.
I’ve finally done something about establishing my red bubble page. At this stage I’ve only uploaded a few images… but will work on expanding the range available.
I was painting tonight… Thienhuong’s painting again. Yes Dibs, two and a bit years later I’m still painting. I think it’s actually getting close to completion. I think you’ll be in shock the day I actually announce I have finished. It will most certainly be a record for how long I’ve worked on one particular painting. I think because it is using imagery and colours which are not my natural choice. I am taking much artistic licence with the lotus flower at this point! I have discovered that painting flowers isn’t easy and perhaps it’s something best left to people who prefer landscapes etc.
These shots were taken one morning walking to work through the QVB / Town Hall area. They capture the ‘bustle’ that the city breathes at that time of the morning. People walk; headphones in; on a mission to get to their destination before 9am. There’s a lot of dodging and the odd person who clearly isn’t employed as they meander oblivious to everyone ducking and weaving around them.
This canvas started life intended as a gift. As such it originally contained images, colours, patterns that I associated with the gift recipient. I don’t actually have any photos of it’s early incarnations… at a certain point, the direction of the painting changed. After all, one can’t gift a painting to someone who is no longer in your life. So I tried to make the painting about the person leaving. I failed. I painted over it again and again. Never quite completely covering the canvas to white. To cover its history entirely did not seem appropriate.
On New Year’s eve I finally had a breakthrough with the painting. I obliterated with abandon. I smeared paint all over it not thinking about colour, shape or pattern… just obliterating… laying a new foundation. See image on RIGHT for what it looked like a fortnight ago.
Since New Year’s I’ve put some crayon on it and tweaked here and there but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it.
Over the last couple of nights it started evolve into something else… I turned the canvas and had a different view of it. Tonight, while watching a 20 year old documentary on Brett Whiteley called “Difficult Pleasure” I suddenly felt like I knew what I wanted to do to finish it. (I had to rewind the doco several times as I kept missing bits while I went off on my painting). A very strange painting evolution indeed!
This post is likely to be a spatter of fragments. They must have some correlation in my mind, though I’m quite sure they will seem disparate to others.
Fragment 1: the joy of a pet
I had a quiet evening at home on Friday night cooking Lasagna with a friend. After creating mess in the kitchen and eating a meal which was half decent, while I cleared the dishes away my friend took up residence in my (one and only) armchair. ‘Far out - this is a comfortable chair’. I know, I replied, half smiling to myself. I’ve yet to have a single visit not comment on the joy of this chair. It is little wonder that Ikea have been selling the same design for decades.
Next the Licorice radar activated - Lap present in chair. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, proceed directly. I watched Licorice curl up in my friends lap. When the patting stopped, Licorice’s paws tugged on clothing and aimed for the face. My friend shot me a look and queried - ‘is she trying to scratch me’. No… she wants you to keep patting her… her habit is to climb up closer and closer to your neck and smother you with love. And the pawing worked, for pats were given once more and I could hear purring. A smile broke out on my friends face. For someone who has had a rough time; a little Licorice love did not go astray.
Fragment 2: the infectioness of optimism
I rarely go out on Monday night’s. It’s the first night of the working week and I seem to have a habit of coming home; slothing around and then settling in to watch Australian Story at 8, or more recently “The Elders”. I find that both programs offer a blend of light and shade that is missing from much of the media. I go for long periods at a time when I simply do not watch the news. I am conscious this puts me out of touch with current events but the upshot is I miss a good deal of depressing information!
It was refreshing to listen to Mohammed Yunus speak. I’ll admit that I’d never heard of this nobel peace prize winner prior to watching this interview. And the interview was not without depressing information - what can be sadder than discussing the extent of poverty in the world. Yet, I finished watching feeling somewhat hopeful about the world. His excitement and enthusiasm was infectious. It reminded me of interviews I’ve seen with the Dalai Lama… where he appears almost child-like in his joy; resilient to any negative questioning while he conveys his wisdom almost without you knowing it. The thoughts offered are so simple yet so intertwined in the concept of caring for another person.
From the Mohammed Yunus interview, I particularly liked this exchange:
ANDREW DENTON: What is going to make [a young person who is 20] change from a life where they make a profit for themselves to a life where they are going to invest in social business?
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: See making money is an exciting thing. You can find a lot of pleasure in making money. Changing the world is the most exciting thing in the world. We have to make a decision that I will not live my life in a way that will take away the enjoyment of life for another person- that simple decision, that’s all.
For more see: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/elders/transcripts/s2757468
Fragment 3: not funny at the time; can laugh now
Unsure what I wanted to paint and running low on good quality watercolour paper, I took out an A3 sheet of regular drawing paper and began to coat it in gesso to give it some strength. I used my favourite tool - the windscreen wiper squeegee thing - to quickly coat the paper.
Without warning a flying brindle object with 4 paws and an uncanny sense of target; landed smack, bang, in the middle of my gesso-ed paper. She took 3 steps off, leaving little white footprints on the plastic covering the drop sheet before I whisked her into the bathroom and shut the door hurriedly. More paw prints - on the tiles (thank goodness for the peeling quality of acrylic). Before she decorated all the tiles, I hurled her into the shower recess which still had a thin layer of water. As the water started to turn milky and saffron’s eyes grew bigger and bigger, I threw off my clothing, grabbed a cloth and set about trying to remove gesso from all 4 paws.
I’m sure when people say a shower with company can be fun; this isn’t what they are referring to…
Saffron and Licorice later sat jointly; hunched in protest on a towel in the bathroom giving me foul looks anytime I dare pass by.
Fragment 4: the mirror of others
I’m a pessimist; a cynic. I’m not the one in the office who beams with positivity about the latest concept. I’m that annoying person who questions it; analyses it and is skeptical about it’s effectiveness before it’s even given a chance to evolve.
Recently I’ve had a few days where I felt very aware of these qualities. I was having “a bad day” and so on the way to work, got out my iphone and took random pictures from the bus. They were not framed or consciously chosen. Many were blurred. Yet reviewing them later they seemed right. They expressed that unsettled quality I sometimes have and the knotted smog of negativity that some days I struggle to see through.
A couple of evenings later the phone rang. It was a friend who has been undergoing treatment for cancer for about a year. She sounded so chirpy and upbeat. We chatted and I got off the phone thinking - why can’t I be more like that?
Some time passed and I noticed that the group of girls in the office who normally ripple with smiles were suddenly far more sober. I spoke to the ringleader of the smile squad and she explained that some criticism of their work had been bandied about. She said to me something along the lines of ‘it’s hard to receive that criticism but I feel for my team. They work so hard and they don’t need that - they are trying their best.’
I reflected on the way my colleagues are normally and thought… what a shame to see them despondent. Thinking back to their normal energy, I questioned again - why can’t I be more like that?
Working in the city, means I sometimes bump into people I haven’t seen in months or years. This happened to me the other day. I was walking along and spotted someone I knew. Knowing the person oozed negativity, I asked myself whether I could just creep by and not be noticed. Yet something in me, thought that wasn’t acceptable. So I went up and said hello. I was greeted with a smile as per usual. However, just like usual, I noticed myself almost sitting outside the conversation noticing each toxic thought being thrown in my direction and wondering how quickly I could leave - work only gives so long off for lunch and as if I want to spend it listening to that.
I listened, I chatted and I exited. As I walked back to the office, I thought ‘thank goodness I am not like that’. While I do often long to be less constrained by my negative thinking; in that moment when I was contrasted with someone else, I saw myself a little more kindly.
Sometimes I love a quick painting sketch. This was done on black paper which I thinly coated in gesso. I then applied mixes of ultramarine, burnt sienna and a dash of gesso here and there.
This took less than an hour to paint so still has that free and unfinished sketch ‘feel’ to it. An enjoyable way to spend part of the evening.
I was a pig at lunch and opted for camembert and crackers. This is one advantage of working in the city - supplies are nearby!
The day started early with gym before work. Going to the gym on Sunday morning (as I was) takes away part of my weekend; yet during the weeknights I’m quite tired and once home have no inclination to move. Anyway, weeknights are reserved for leisurely painting, dressmaking, cat cuddling or my once a week dinner with mum and dad.
So I opted for this morning. The gym wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be pre-work hours. Anyway, back to being a pig and where the chickens come in to this story.
When collecting the camembert I was given a free coles Christmas magazine. I thought it was worth a flick for any decent collage material. Pictures that I incorporate into my art do come from the most unlikely sources. This was a little optimistic as being a Christmas magazine it’s filled with pictures of roast chickens. Feathered ones I maybe could work with, but stuffed chickens? This got me wondering, what would be the point of putting a stuffed chicken in a collage? Moreover what would one put in the piece with the chicken? It couldn’t be other food… particularly not a slurpee else it would look more like an advertisement for fast food than a piece of art. (Yes, I do realise what I just said and understand that the concept of putting roast chickens in artwork is really raising the question of whether it was art). Maybe the only way it could work is to think of something that would NEVER go with a chicken - a bi-plane perhaps piloted by the red baron? I’m sure that no one could accuse me of copying with that combination.
Then again looking at the pictures of roast chickens made me realise that they really can have a lovely colour to them; possibly turkey breast photography can be recycled into abstract colour concept. After all, who would know that it was once a chicken in a coles magazine?
At any rate tonight’s creative efforts didn’t extend to collage or paint. Rather I cut out the fabric for a skirt I’m making. Not the pictured fabric actually. I thought I’d do the first one on some fabric which was both cheap and I have more meterage than I need.
Anyway, I can go to sleep wondering how to make Christmas dinner images work in art or - probably better - where to find less challenging collage material.
This is a photo of a friend who will not let me take a photo while he’s sporting a moustache to raise money for charity. He’s raised over $400 to date and with November not yet over… hopefully he’ll get a little more. (His ‘mo’ link is here)
It’s the only photo that I took today. I had planned on taking a few more - particularly of the barnacles growing on the rocks and the lovely colours which flowed through them - almost like marble cake! However once I fell over on those rocks I lost my enthusiasm for photographing them. Fortunately just a couple of grazes. Saffron did much more damage when she scratched my foot a few weeks ago.
I’ve had lots of cat cuddles this evening, so I seem to be forgiven for spending the day picnic-ing with my friend and his little dog ferret. This is good as it was a most enjoyable picnic… double brie, mersey valley cheese, french stick, prawns, a pleasant spot, interesting conversation and a bundle of ferret energy. Thankfully we seem to have exhausted him and he went to sleep in my lap on the way home. (Much lighter than either licorice or saffron!)
I’d started this painting the other night. Originally it was lighter both literally and figuratively speaking. This evening I transferred the candle on to it. After I finished darkening the painting, photographing and cropping it, I thought about how some flames will take such a battering from the wind and still remain alive. Yet others are snuffed out so quickly. Perhaps candles are like people - some have more resilience than others.
