I’ve had three large paintings on the go for a little while now. The good news is that the second one is, I think, now finished. There are always details that I would like to change, but this one is good enough to leave on one side. There’s still the question of varnishing, but I’ll wait to take advice on that.
The bad news is that I think I’m going to have to scrap the one I started first. While the other two are in acrylics, this one is in oils and I’ve been dogged by technical problems from the beginning. I’ve had plenty of helpful advice, but for a week or two I’ve been debating whether to start again. Working on the other two has shown me that acrylics can work very well for what I’m trying to do, and I’m developing various techniques to get the effects I’m after. So I think I’m probably better off stretching a fresh canvas for this one, despite my resistance to starting afresh.
It’s the last week of Easter break and the school is still quiet. Less than six weeks of studio time left now, but I’m hoping to have some time towards the end to get back into the print room if I can get the paintings to where I want them.
The school is closed to most people for the holidays, but final year students can come in to work. I’ve done three days this week, trying to keep a momentum of work going.
The week before I built another large stretcher. Installing this in my studio space entailed moving everything around to make room; nearly all the wall space is now taken up with three large canvases. The third one is now primed, and I’ve been making various experiments to see how I might proceed with it. I realised recently that I tend to treat experiments with materials rather casually, and this has led to some works that were almost good enough to be finished pieces but lacked attention to detail. I’m becoming more determined to put as much care as possible into each piece, just in case it turns out successfully. It’s a shame to reject something when it could have turned out well with a little more effort.
I’ve seen a few shows in the last couple of weeks. The Mary Heilmann show at Hauser and Wirth was a disappointment, but the smaller Michael Raedecker show was much more rewarding and I wrote a short review for Interface. I can also recommend David Shrigley’s show at the Hayward.
It’s good to get out of the studio and look at what other people are doing; it helps put your own work in a different perspective.
Looking ahead, we need to get sponsorship for the show catalogue and our own postcards. We’ll be approaching local businesses and doing some events to raise cash. There are seven weeks left before we have to leave the studios so they can be prepared for the show. Work is going well, but I still feel the shortness of time.
