Back to France and home…and it’s lovely

I suspect this is a self-portrait of David McEwen hard at work on his blog - Kate

We’re back home. The jet lag didn’t seem to bother us too much and once we’d said hello to Ella, Gigi and Ken (no, Ken isn’t another dog,  he was the dog/house sitter while we were away), we started work. Our little darlings had him trained to a hair, in other words, they did exactly as they wanted for seven weeks!  Seven weeks worth of letters, junk mail, magazines various and assorted trivia and then the awful part SPRING CLEANING and GENERAL REFURBISHMENT. Oh, dearie, dearie me…and then the first of the american commissions, a  horse portrait for a Mummy’s birthday…BUT…For the Blog…First things first…..

The THANK YOU moment

There are so many people to thank for our extended working holiday and, of course, we must begin with the lady of the lap top, Kate.  Kate gave us respite care and wonderful food, she sent us a GPS Tom-Tom and then helped us through the setting up stage, gave us an Ipad then helped us through the setting up stage and we re-paid her by watching hours of cookery programmes on Netflix when she was dieting.

Carole and Dan at Forms Gallery in Delray Beach told us about some terrific eating places, took us to a lovely concert in West Palm Beach and publicised my paintings very well indeed.  David, Barbara and all the staff at Hands Art Shop on Atlantic Avenue who organised demonstrations and teachings for me to give. Jaynie in Charleston, (my agent) gave me huge amounts of very good advice, gentle encouragement, took us to wonderful restaurants and found us a lovely hotel in Charleston. Then there was Terry in Tampa. Terry had stayed with us here at L’Atelier du Soulondre three times and is a very good draughtsman…(though he says he doesn’t draught). He and his neighbours Joe and Paula took us by boat for a feast of crab claws and showed us the Headquarters of the Scientologists… so disappointing…not an alien in sight. We then went off to a tiny and charming Race Track where they made bets for us all – it was strange that I got all the three legged, sway backed, spavinned rejects from the glue factory which all finished last in the race after one in which they had started.

And then… a really big THANK YOU

A painting of Einstein that David created during his demonstrations in Delray, Fla. January 2012.

We seem to meet a lot of interesting and slightly eccentric people. Many of them come and stay with us. I’m not sure why!! Last year I was painting in the street on Atlantic Avenue when a wonderful lady with splendid red hair came up to chat. She then came to stay with us in France and painted highly colourful  paintings of anything that interested her…which included just about everything…especially monkeys…don’t ask. The lady with the splendid hair is called Jean…what is it about that name…why are people with that name as charmingly mad as a bag of badgers ? O.K. they’re eccentric, fun and Beaut, Bonzer and Ripper… you know who I’m talking about. So when we got to Delray we went see Jean and eat with her and talk and laugh and then she said  that we couldn’t stay in hotels and gave us the key to a condo she had for sale. It was so generous.  Then she opened her porch and garden for more teaching sessions and we had FUN.

Not just that we met so many super people incluing Jurgen and Pat,  from Prince Edward Island, more Snowbirds, Stan from Delray Beach and others;  not only were they all good painters but Jurgen gave me all kinds of advice which has helped me to walk without discomfort for the first time in six months..( I’ve had a problem with tendonitis and nobody else was able to help…ta very much Jurgen ). Best news of all,  Red Jean is coming back to us this summer. It’s great to be able to swop holidays here with accomodation in the U.S.of A

Janey phoned us shortly after we arrived and told us that we’d been invited to lunch on a plantation near Charleston so we drove  for nine hours through Georgian Oaks draped with Spanish Moss. There were little cabins to be glimpsed through the trees and I almost heard dueling banjos!  The plantation was amazing with acres of parkland and we were transported to a long gone age and expected to see top-hatted “gen’lemen” named Gaylord and Rhett duelling on the banks of the river. We ate Oysters and fried chicken and I was a happy little soldier……a commission may follow….maybe…in the fullness of time. We stayed in the 19th century by wandering through the city of Charleston which we love,  because it’s old and we feel at home. So many houses in the old town have signs outside which tell of  Dr. so-and-so who was brought back to die from a mortal wound sustained in a duel with Colonel what-his-name in 1720. It’s a wonderful place.

Then…to Kate’s and steaks the size of small continents and lots of  rest, the do-bugger-all type of rest which we needed soooooooo much. We slobbed about and watch tele for a week, bliss.  An all to brief stop in Orlando with our friends Scott and Jasmine, not forgetting new baby Erika and Gloin and Gimli, two adorable but bouncy yellow labs.  Then…back to Delray to watch some horses jumping at Wellington. All the riders are getting ready for the Olympics and the weather in Florida and the wonderful courses  make it ideal for Nick Skelton, Ben Maher and Scot Brash to hone their horses before the final choice  for the U.K. Team is made. We sat in The Tikki Bar, drank beer and O.D’d on horses and show jumping.

We met so many colourful characters. From drunks at horse shows to an amazing Nibelungen at the Museum in West Palm Beach. There’s so much to do in Southern Florida and Jean took us to most of them from the beautiful Japenese Museum near Delray ( I loved it even though told  by She -who- must- be- obeyed that I wasn’t allowed to buy an embroidered kimono, O.K. it was $3,000 and it might have looked a little o.t.t. in Lodeve Market, but…) to the Art Gallery in West Palm Beach. There was an exhibition that we’d heard a few people talking about – it was of “pictures” painted by Jenny Saville. Well, those of you who have read this blog before know how much I detest opinionated people , they don’t shut up for long enough for me to give my opinion and this is one reason I like doing this blog….nobody can stop me or talk over me, Ha Ha .

So Jenny Saville ….she can draw really well, she applies the paint well at times, however sometimes it looks as though she was painting flats for the stage of a bad Amateur Theatrical show. She seems to delight in finding ugly models and she made me think of my old Professor, Victor Pasmore, who famously said that if you set out to make an ugly painting you should pack up and go home and that’s what Saville does, rather like Lucian Freud. Somehow, worse than the paintings, was the patronising, pompous and pedantic rubbish that the docents (guides to anybody other than the Yanks…sorry, Americans) were spouting. They spoke of genius, the search for truth, the spacial and kinetic awareness etc., ad nauseam. As we wandered around I got more and more angry until Sal took me gently but firmly by the elbow and dragged me out of that part of the Gallery threatening me with no more steaks because I wouldn’t have teeth to chew them…..But ….that wasn’t too bad.

In leaving ugliness behind we walked into gallery after gallery of 18th and 19th century paintings of light, joy and lovliness and my blood pressure gradually  fell and I loved every moment and learned so much about “how to.”  I’m not saying that I’m as good as some of those on the wall, but I’m learning and by looking closely at greatness we can all learn and I would have understood more if it wasn’t for Gollum’s grandma. At one painting I got too close, 2 feet I suppose, and a tiny homunculus-like creature appeared from nowhere screaching, ” You’re too close.” I leapt back apologising but it wasn’t enough as wherever we went she followed like a gimlet-eyed pantomime gnome ready for us to cross an invisible line  and breathe on a painting, or fold them up and slip them into our pocket. We didn’t know how she did it –  it was like a game which we lost every time, it was scary…she was old and small and never lost breath…we did, so we gave up and fled.

One thing was rather nice - we flew with American Airlines, sadly not in First or Business but it was comfy even for a large cove like me.   The food was good and the staff were so nice and welcoming as we brought on board so much STUFF. The final thanks go to Xaviere Chatagnier, a lovely Flight Attendant, who just happened to be working on both our flights and was caring, helpful and a truly wonderful representative of her company.

Thank you America  —  we will be back.

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Ring out the old, ring in the new

Amelie reads to the animals. Painting by David McEwen

We are deep into the New Year and, as usual, I’m late with this blog, but then most of you who read it know that I work slowly!

I can’t believe that it is February, so much has happened recently…so much happened last year…so where to begin? I have to say that 2011 was BEAUT, BONZER, RIPPER. Sorry, but we had an awful lot of Aussies with us last year and their quaint colonial, vocabulary was catching ( I can say things like that cos they’re thousands of miles away and they can’t hit me ).

The Doomsayers began the year by saying that the Recession was so bad that we wouldn’t get anybody from A to Z. Worrying, eh. However in January, when I was Painting in the Street in Delray Beach, Florida, a lady walked by and within an hour she had booked for a two week painting holiday in May soooo that was A. Tension mounted during the year until somebody from New Zealand booked in…. Zealand…get it? Oh, please yourselves, at least that meant we were safe from promised financial collapse. Well seriously, we were told that it would be a bad year, but, you know, either we’re doing something right or we’re just lucky because we met a lot of very, very good painters from all over the world and they did many fine paintings. (And this is where I think I’m so fortunate) I learned so much from our world-wide guests.

Other news from 2011. I entered a number of competitions including The Society of All Artists, Painter of The Year which I’ve already written about; I put work into a number of exhibitions in Europe and North America and sold amazingly well especially when one considers that during a financially unsettled time, nobody really needs a painting.

The highlight of our year was the birth of James David, our third grandchild.

However, the absolute highlight of 2011 wasn’t meeting so many nice people, it wasn’t winning prizes or finding patrons or making sales, nor the arrival of a black labrador puppy, Gigi, quickly re-named The Dark Destroyer as she gnawed and dug her way through our garden, the most wonderful thing was the birth of our third grandchild, James David. B.J. or Baby James is a serious little chap who complains during the still watches of the night as he DOES NOT WANT TO SLEEP. He has had bright red cheeks for some time now but no teeth, he looks at me as though he’s thinking, “What on earth is that hairy creature ?” and he thinks deep, deep thoughts and within hours became the centre of all our universes.

You may remember that I’ve mentioned one of my painter heroes, Norman Rockwell, once or twice because I love his paintings but also his gift for telling a story. So after I finished a painting of our grandson, Sam,  and his report card, he and I went for a walk through the woods and talked about the Next One. Two stories came out, one was about Sam’s sister Amelie, the other I’ll write about later. We thought that it would be fun to paint Amelie reading a story to some of her animals…and boy, does she have animals….so we asked her to sit for some photographs and she said, No…….! Amelie is nine and you may ask why is she so…… so, er, well a pain in the bum, er, you’ve not met her mummy have you ? We asked her Why and she said that she had never read a story to animals before so she didn’t feel that she could do it…so Hollywood ! We eventually did the photo shoot and started the drawings and as usual the story evolved and changed as did the animals; one cow took the place of a less attractive breed, a goat gave way to cats who, in their turn faded in number and a puppy appeared. We all had fun deciding what the books would be…Animal Farm and White Fang in the end. At this point it moved to the far end of the studio so I could look at it for a while as I worked on four stag paintings for an exhibition at The Dog and Horse Gallery in Charleston.

Stag Paintings by David McEwen

Mia, our horse lady daughter has found a rather nice guy called Andy who stalks deer (we like him because he gives us venison …oh, and he makes Mia happy ) and he found some wonderful photos of stag hunting so two of them and two of my old ones from Loch Assynt have helped me to make some paintings that I enjoyed working on.

Looking at Amelie Reading I realised that something was missing, there was a big bit of damn all right in the middle so I put a half door in….then a heavy horse and it seemed to have worked, only time and somebody’s cheque book will tell.

While I was painting Bedtime Story we asked Amelie if she wanted to see progress but she would shrug and say Nah…but…she started to call by with different friends and bring them into the studio where she would stand, casually, by her painting and when her friends noticed and said, “Hey, that’s you” she would look surprised and throw away a ” Oh, yeah, ” as though it happened to everyone else in the world every day.

Now we’re in Florida, talking about exhibitions, delivering commissions, doing demonstration days with Open Acrylics and …Oh I have to mention one thing…we had lunch near Gainsville one day at an outwardly understated place called Chopstixs Cafe…..it was THE BEST MEAL WE’D HAD IN AMERICA….thank you guys. More about Florida next time.

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Meet David McEwen in Delray Beach, Fla

David will be demonstrating at Hands Art Supplies, Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach Florida on Saturday, Feb. 18. Times to be confirmed.
He will also be running courses in Delray Beach from 930 am to 1230 pm,  February 22-24 – venue and times to be confirmed. Please contact Sally & David via their website, http://www.paintfrance.com,  email sally.mcewen@wanadoo.fr or call (561) 843-1230 for more information. Spaces are limited.

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Dreams of fame and glory

The Judgement Of Paris: London 2010 by David McEwen

It’s all gone quiet. All the painters have gone home and all we are left with are echoes and memories of happy holidays. The South of France is yawning and preparing to slumber through the short winter, houses are being closed up and we are doing all kinds of things that we didn’t have time to do while Painting Holiday clients and those on vacation in general were here… sleeping and then sleeping some more !!!

Well actually our break won’t last too long because we just confirmed some bookings for November and December and today our first Christmas booking came in. Yes, we paint at Christmas but also we eat, eat and drink and then eat a bit more. We try to combine French and English Christmas food and the table groans. It’s amazing to think that Sally has been producing amazing meals for Holiday makers for fourteen years.

Although I usually talk about the sort of paintings that our clients do in our lovely villages, this time I’m going to write about something different. Something that we thought would change our lives, something new and very exciting.

You may have heard that Saatchi ( you know who he is…he’s the man who discovered artistic geniuses like Tracy ‘ Dirty Bedroom’ Emin and Damien ‘ Half a Cow’ Hurst  is starting to collect Realism. (Shock, Horror.) Well it’s a sort of Realism, it’s Realism with anachronisms which are actually interesting and fun.

And then...

We have a neighbour who is a sort of super Art Consultant and something really important at The Tate Modern, well to show you how his finger is close to the throbbing pulse of GREAT Contemporary Art he thinks that Tracy is … wait for i t… the greatest Artist who has ever lived. So there we are then. You might be surprised, therefore, when I tell you that I contacted him a while ago and asked him to look at my website and offer suggestions as I’m trying to find an agent for The U.K. and Europe and although I don’t like much of the Art that he works with I’ll listen to advice from anyone.

He came to see me a couple of weeks later and looked very carefully at everything that I have at home including W.I.P.’s (works in progress) and we talked about all kinds of trends including Mr Saatchi’s Anacronistic Realism. Then he asked me if I could work from photographs that he had and gave me sizes of the wood panels that he wanted the paintings to be on…unsigned..because that is the new trend !

The photos arrived via the magic of e-mail and you could have knocked me down with a fairly large feather as they showed some ladies who had forgotten to put on their underwear….our neighbour is a lay preacher and his wife is a Vicar.

I looked at the photos and thought alot about what I’d been told, that these paintings could be the start of something HUGE, he talked vaguely about being the new Banksy etc., etc., so they needed to be planned with care.

The painting of three girls was to be called The Judgement Of Paris: London 2010 so I thought straightaway of the painting by Rubens and decided that as we’d talked about anachronisms that I’d introduce some of the figures from the photos into his background…..so…….this is the first version….a lot of work but interesting.

…it’s not my sort of Art Work but a friend of our neighbour, a photographer, took his girlfriend into the pool and said, “Lift your dress.” by David McEwen
Original concept…

The second was of an Art Work in an exhibition in Japan where people could enter a swimming pool from below and look up to see water over a sheet of heavy glass….O.K. it’s not my sort of Art Work but a friend of our neighbour, a photographer, took his girlfriend into the pool and said, “ Lift your dress ” …. the rest is history.

Let me take you back for a moment to the days of the Pre-Raphaelites, Ruskin and Millais.  Poor old Ruskin, the well known critic and supporter of  Turner, got married to a lovely young lady but when they arrived at the marraige bed he was so shocked to see that his bride had pubic hair he was never able to consumate the marriage. Later the Ruskins went on holiday with Millaise who started a painting of his host standing on a rock beside a waterfall……………soooooo…..I thought the girl in the swimming pool would have got on well with Mr Ruskin….and….the painting grew.

I got in touch with my Consultant neighbour and sent him photos of the finished paintings and sat back waiting for fame and glory……..ho, hum……well he eventually told me that he couldn’t remember talking about anchronisms and had really wanted the paintings to be copies of the photos and…and.. so I changed them.

He came to see them, eventually, and, well, he told me that,  ”…it really is very difficult to sell paintings at the moment”.  Haven’t seen him for months now. Bum. No contract, no fame, no glory.

Now then, if the Aussies who were with us recently have actually read this far… hope that you got home safe and sound, girls, miss you, it was fun.

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Paintings to be on Show in Charleston, S.C. USA

One of David’s Paintings made it on the Charleston Magazine’s website!

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Summer’s here. Holiday painters arrive. Trying new techniques

 
In Progress Finished
I’m trying out some new types of paintings. They’re slow drying acrylics and I paint them on small raw canvases. They’re fascinating to do because I push these pigment-rich paints around with brushes and my fingers and I leave them “unfinished” and I’m learning so much about painting “Painterly” paintings. I’ve put up some stage by stage examples of these new ones and some finished ones too. Questions are welcome.

So far it’s been a truly amazing Summer… with bookings for Painting Holidays here in La Belle France being the best that we’ve ever had, paintings going off to exhibitions in The United States, a new type of painting evolving and lastly, interest from Holland.

Let’s look at the Painting Holidays first. We have a number of different types of clients; there are people who have decided that they want a vacation with something “to do” so they wander through magazines, the internet or listen to friends and decide to paint… and then there are those who KNOW they want to paint. The painters can be beginners, moderately experienced, or very accomplished artists. The painters browse the internet too and the choices are amazing. There are Painting Holiday sites all over France not just here in the South and we know some of them….we talk to each other, we send guests on when we’re full and… of course we steal ideas from each other! Well, I’m sure we don’t do that, not really, er, um…though I must say that I’ve seen comments in other people’s publicity the seem vaguely familiar. (Ahem) So what do we offer?

With L’Atellier du Soulondre painters and holiday makers live in our house which is set on the edge of a town first settled by the Romans 2000 years ago. We can accommodate eleven in bedrooms surrounding our garden overlooking a babbling stream and the 11th Century Cathedral. Painters work with me in my large studio or in a number of amazingly beautiful Midi villages. You see, we’ve been here for 15 years and we know which villages or venues might suit each of our clients (some centres hire in people for the summer who don’t know the area…and can’t tell/show you good places to paint. People eat with us or we go out to village restaurants and talk about painting, art and food ‘cos Sally is Cordon Blue trained and the meals are fantastic ( some centres dump people in nearby hotels and guest houses and eat with them sometimes! Wow…I’d hate that. )  So that’s the comfort bit of the vacation.

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Oh, yes. I got a prize for one of my paintings.

This year I won a "Highly Commended" for my painting, "Manon II" from a competition run by The Society of All Artists.

We’re at the real start of the Holiday Season. The town is full of voices from all over the world as people take their vacation in the “Gateway to the South” and sit soaking up the rays in street cafés with bottles of liquid sunshine, crisp new-baked bread and some of our four hundred cheeses. Painting holiday makers have come to us from all over the world so far, U.K., Canada, India, Germany, France,  Belgium, U.S.A., South Africa, Switzerland and those places that I can’t remember at this moment. I want to mention Wales especially because we had a wonderful painter here a little while ago who not only painted well, she also sends me very funny stuff via the internet and sent me a fantastic book by one of my all-time favourite painters, James Fletcher-Watson, THANK YOU LAURA. It’s an amazing book and it covers his time in India…well worth a read.

So it’s busy, I’m busy, Sal’s busy… even the dogs are busy. We have a new puppy, Gigi, named The Dark Destroyer by those who have to pick up after her, but the Painting Holiday Clients seem to love her and ignore the fact that she’s run off with their sable brushes and Ella is being the ‘responsible adult. Hah. That’s like saying that Hannibal Lecter is a ‘caring healer’ as they are both as bad as each other, and Gigi is leading her guide astray.

Sam, our wonderful grandson sitting, in despair, with his school report in his hand.

We are going out to paint more and more often and The Languedoc is blooming, colours are bursting from the hillsides, grapes and olives are swelling and we try to catch them in watercolour, pastel, acrylic and oil. In between teaching group after group I’m trying to get some big paintings ready for an exhibition in Charleston, South Carolina where my agent ( doesn’t that sound grand ) Jaynie runs a beautiful gallery called Dog and Horse which she has owned for ten years. To celebrate the birthday she’s asked three European based artists to show their work…and I’m one of them…cor ! You’ve seen some of the paintings already, the old lady with the dogs, the girl in café on the Cote D’Azur, the blacksmith so there’s just one more to finish and it’s probably the most difficult. It shows Sam, our wonderful grandson sitting, in despair, with his school report in his hand whilst his raggedy dog tries to comfort him.

Earlier this year I entered a competition run by The Society of All Artists. The Society exists to encourage and help painters all over the world, supplies insurance for member’ exhibitions,  runs a great postal Art supplies service and each year holds a Painter of the Year Competition. I was Runner Up a few years ago and I’ve  entered each year since but to no avail.  BUT…this year, well, this year I got a Highly Commended for my painting, Manon II, which is Runner Up again. So, bloody Hell, runner up out of over 6,000 entries, not bad, even if I say it myself.

I had to sneak a little time away from the American paintings to paint a quicky of daughter, Jo. A friend who is a 'retired' but very gifted forger gave me a beautiful frame which he had made so I needed to do something very classical to fit into it...Jo fitted the bill, and this is her on her wedding day.

So, I thought that since I didn’t have any Painting Holiday students last week that I would make a flying visit to London to pick up my certificate, meet up with e-friends, buy some supplies and also go to see “heaven”, otherwise known as The National Portrait Gallery. It was great…I met so many people, didn’t spend too much money, and saw such wonderful paintings by both members of the Society but also the splendid B.P. Portrait Exhibition and in The National Gallery such things that only dreams are made of….Vermeers, Carravagios, Stubbs, and dreamy Turners…Oh my God, it was magnificent. Realism is back…maybe…oh, how I hope that it is.

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Sunday a day of rest for the old lady too

The Old Lady by David McEwen

Sunday, yes the Sabbath, everybody else is resting but as they say there’s no peace for the wicked and I must have very bad indeed because it’s 8:30 in the morning and I’m in the studio looking at my little old lady. I’ll tell you now that I’ve never made a painting without thinking that this will never come together, I’m told that marathon runners feel the same at twenty miles and if they push they’ll finish. So today I’ve got to get through or over my particular wall.

What I’m going to do is try to forget that its a unified painting and just work on bits here and there. A bit of detail here, a touch there, taking some very bright colours back if they stand out to much or a touch of highlight to bring another shape from the darkness. Then step back and look and look and look. If you squeeze up your eyes it helps you to see the painting as it might look when you’re finished.

One of the differences between Oil paintings and watercolours is that you view watercolours more closely than oils…so in close up oils can seem to be roughly or even more brutally painted than their more delicate cousins.

Other than doing a little bit here and there to the big oil we wandered off to a beautiful village called Salasc to do a little drawing, painting and pastel work. More of that later.

So now, to slob in front of the telly and it’s Fish and Chips for supper………Oh my Cod…..sorry.

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Who will come for a Painting Holiday?

It is strange that each years’ bookings are so different and impossible to predict who will decide that they must have a holiday. Not just a holiday — but a painting holiday and not just any old painting holiday, but a painting holiday in The South of France, the Midi to be precise. So each year we wait with baited breath to discover just who is coming to paint with us, and when some years it seems as though the world is suffering a shortage of painters who wish to rest from their labours and take their vacation with us. This year has been no different, things have been so quiet of late but then… the wires have been hot and the e-mails have been arriving from people all over the world who want a Painting Holiday, or more correctly a holiday with painting, which has one of the best cooks in the business and the books are looking better so we may be able to buy shoes for the children this year !

Over the past few weeks we’ve had painters from Wales, England, Ireland, India, France and America. When we were in Florida this year I did a demonstration of Acrylic painting outside an Art Shop in Delray Beach and a lady, amongst many others, stopped to watch and a short conversaion later Jean booked in for two weeks painting. When she arrived we wandered all over the district, painted in watercolour, acrylic and pastel, she dragged me up hills and down dales and she painted some wonderful stuff but she left this morning and we are exhausted ….. when you think that she’s, well, I’m a gentleman so I can’t say ….. but she’s a certain age and I need to lie down,  she’s tired me out! Still, we’ve all had a great vacation and she was such fun.

Some weeks are fun.

When I have painters with me, I can’t work on the big oils that I’m getting ready for an exhibition in Charleston, South Carolina, so I decided to prepare some drawings on tinted Canson paper that I could work on with pastels when we went out…but when we worked in the studio I found some little stretched canvases so drew up four portraits. They are raw, brown canvses and I’m going to make rough free portraits. At the same time, well not really all at the same time… no brushes in each hand and one in my mouth, you know what I mean…I’m doing a portrait of our daughter, Jo.

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The end of the affair…and the mess.

End of the Affair by David McEwen

I’ve taken a break from cleaning the studio, a job that I hate in one way… but welcome in another. I hate tidying up, I know where things are in the chaotic mess which is my studio and once I tidy them away they’re lost forever, but, on the other hand, it means that more students are arriving…or I’m using the clean up as a means of putting off doing something that I’m finding difficult…Procrastination is positive sometimes.

I’ve reached the stage with the old dog lady when I’m not sure if she’s finished or not. I’ve been so close to her for so many hours that I can’t see things clearly, so I put the painting on an easle at the far end of the studio and look at her. After a couple of days I’ll start to see some of the things that are wrong or needed. More of this in a few days.

I do this with all my paintings so the studio usually has five or six paintings hanging on the walls at any one time. Over the past couple of days I’ve been working on two particular pictures. The main one is a sort-of repeat and it’s called The End of the Affair. The first version just had the girl in it…this time I’ve added to the story. The girl looks out of the window towards the darkening evening sky while ( if you have tears, prepare to shed them now ) one of her dogs look towards the departing lover, the other looks at her, neither understanding what’s going on. The dog who looks out of the painter is our Leo. I won’t forget you, old friend.

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