the lovely painting continues, well okay maybe it’s not so lovely but one thing that has made it lovelier is the acquiring of new brushes. back in the day i was quite the man for my brushes. in the interim i seem to have lost that instinct. cheap but functional you might say if only they had been that functional. true, i kind of like that trail of shed hair to give some insight into my production but for this last i definitely didn’t want that. and off to the brush shop.
what a revelation. or maybe it is only to someone who perhaps ‘isn’t the brightest’. when it comes to housepainting i hate a cheap brush – one of the things i like about that activity is getting the brushes out and putting on some decent paint (i.e. not from b&q). and, strangely enough it’s the same with painty paint brushes! so, getting used this week have been a peachy new 2 inch brush (surely the verticoli of my brush box), a textile fan and fine brush, and another sable fine (both size 0). that brush geek enough!?
anyway, other stuff i’m learning. after a howler last year when i got asked to make another picture similar to one i’d already done and realising i couldn’t actually remember how i done it i’ve been much more conscientious about making notes as i’m working. aside from avoiding obvious fits of the stupids it does avoid the above and the repetition of the same mistakes. notebooks are also great for sketches, ideas and.. notes. i like my notebooks big time (note: moleskin = wrong)
what else have i learned. one i should have picked up from an acquaintance who knows better than me is be well cautious about making work for someone’s exhibition, preferably only use what you’ve got. it may be, if you’re from poetryland, that place cyril connolly described as ‘jackals snarling over an empty well’ (i’m paraphrasing) you might have the idea that artyworld is somehow better organised what with all those galleries and stuff. sadly not so. in artyworld just because someone says they’ll do a thing that doesn’t mean it’ll be getting done and if it does it most certainly won’t be on time. never be in a position where these people owe you money. i’m just saying….
talking of which i had a bit of an outburst today when t informed me of a gallery who were charging 60% commission and still expecting the artists to pay the vat! you’d be as well selling on the street. but of course artyworld doesn’t operate like that… which is a shame as when i was by the studio today i met christy in a state of near hypothermia. people with that sort of commitment don’t need a gouging from a gallery on top of the rest.
anyway, me i’ve got a pristine new canvas hanging in the (now leaf free) studio. it looks great and, once it gets warmer, i’m going to do two more in the same series. the drawing pieces continue. i write some poetry. i do some writing. still haven’t sorted out distances tho
lazy, lazy, lazy
i adore brushes (oh, can you imagine being in a brush shop in japan?), so i read your story with pure delight.
(and a friend who lives in paris and is a wonderful photographer seeking ways to get exhibited tells me similar things about the art world
another one who was supposed to organize an exhibition in america for two renowned french painters was robbed of the drawings he had sent them, which the painters had entrusted him, i mean that the gallery never gave them back, they just stole them!!! and people ask me why i don’t make any efforts to make my photos ‘known’ haha)
ah, that’s such a depressingly familiar story. maybe that’s why we have day jobs!
i’ve never used one of those japanese brush things (what is the japanese word?). i would imagine, having looked at them in comparison to the (certainly for the larger brushes) square profile brushes i tend to that the manner of holding them would be very different, as with the application – i’m not a line person and when i’ve tried calligraphy brushes and their quality (of ‘flowingness’?) was quite odd to me. that said i’ve got a big silk painting i want to do that they’d be perfect for. maybe in the summer, assuming the studio thaws sufficiently i’ll have the time and space.