Thursday, April 29, 2010

Ideas vs. Production

I was in a conundrum today. First I completed the priming of two panels for my dual self- portraits. The preparation work on those is now done and they are awaiting underpainting. The conundrum is that I've got a busy painting schedule yet yesterday I had two ideas for paintings and I found it hard to resist either! I had planned on starting work on the Gethsemane painting but no! I thought I'd flesh out one of the recent ideas and see if I can paint it in time to enter the Threadneedle Prize, deadline is June the 1st.

The painting is about the feminisation of society and is pictorially related to both my underground Station Of The Future and the Albion painting. This one has a hulking male figure in darkness. It's designed to be dramatic and firmly in the romantic tradition. I'm happy with today's composition so I'll start drawing tomorrow. It would suit a huge canvas, but I haven't got the time, the canvas(!) or the ability to take a big painting to London anyway, so I'll stick to 50x50cm.

The picture shows a glimpse of the moonlit landscape involved that I quickly made up today on the computer. The drama of the clouds is down to pure serendipity. My moon might well be in front of the clouds.

The second idea can wait. I MUST stop inventing and get painting existing ideas. I've got at least four huge canvases that I've got to work on. I wonder how other artists cope with such problems!