‘Poetry gets its energy from tension between the human imperfections, untidiness and limits it starts from, and its own struggle for formal perfection, for music and cadence’. (Ruth Padel, “52 Ways of Looking at a Poem”, Vintage, 2004).
This chimes with something I’m very aware of in painting at the moment: the energy inherent in the tension between the mess and almost-chaos of ‘stuff’, and the desire in the viewer (and the artist) for the soothing consolations of order and beauty.
Off to the studio!
