Sketch 4. Paris: Wandering Savagely. Bound for a major re-think.
Work on the project is proving intense. I’m in studio phase and working as many hours as I can on paintings – some of which sit! like well trained dogs, and some of which don’t.
By this I mean I can already tell that some are going to prove difficult to resolve, resulting in tussle of wills for which there is no doggie chew to bargain with. This is often the way – it is only the rare painting that arrives as a gift and lies doggo on first command.
But my 6 painted sketches are helping tremendously in the work on the first 3 larger panels – it’s my 4th that’s being tricksy.
Interestingly, it was by far the quickest (in sketch form) and, looking back, highly provisional.
So – chin scratch, head nod – comes the sage observation that if you have to work to a plan, it pays to plan more thoroughly.
This may be obvious to the casual observer, but something of a novelty for me in my painting practice. I’m intuitive and explorative in method – I begin usually without preconception or plan, but rather trust to instinct to draw on my research.
Already, Felicia is stretching me and teaching me new tricks.
The first 3 works are also those which incorporate Felicia’s line, and even carefully chosen examples of her figurative sketches. There has come a point in panel 4 where I no longer recognise my own work however, and part of the struggle is to orientate myself. Immersed in research material, entranced by Felicia’s drawing practice my explorations have now taken me too far for comfort in an exhibition context. The work still has to reflect who I am as an artist – albeit responding to another artist’s material. So I must step back in panel 4 and dig my way out a little to recoup my own thumbprint and regain what feels like the harmony of panels 1-3.
