Final underpainting day of 'All The Broken Hearted'. Now all four paintings of my current tranche of works are underpainted, awaiting glazing. I'm reminded that time is short, that the summer is nearly out, considering the time these alone will take to complete. I must aim higher, jump straight to masterpieces.
After painting, updated Prometheus to v3.89 with some little efficiencies, removing 20 or more menu items.
Second day of painting. Exhausting details of feathers! One day of underpainting remains.
Today, started the underpainting too 'All The Broken Hearted'. Difficult this, as it's largely imaginary, and the poses and lighting on the textures require a lot of invention. Dali railed against imagination painting in this way, but did so out of frustration. Invention and adding more than is there in reality is part of the skill of painting, and an essential part of self expression - we are not human cameras. Bierstadt's mountains and Edwin Church's clouds are more real than reality, they are beyond nature, caricatures.
A lovely visit to Chester yesterday for the Literature Prize Awards. Nice to see Chris Driver finish as a runner up, and spoke with script winner Andy Hayward, who I'd previously met at the launch of Go Sprout The Grain in Crewe Library last September.
Slept badly and awoke with stomach pain and a faintingly weak feeling of low blood pressure. It took many hours to feel anything close like back to normal. Despite this weakness, a manic day of work, first completing the underpainting to the large 'Crushed Are The Weak' painting. One of my finer underpaintings, executed in record time. My palette knife broke, new less than 12 months ago:
The previous one lasted 18 years. I'll not buy Winsor and Newton Palette Knives again, and will try an RGM knife next.
Today is also the official release day of the War And Nuclear Love EP, my only new release of 2026, and my 85th release since 1999 (including singles, not including re-releases/remasters/re-recordings). This also too some time. At times today I felt suicidally tired of life, but of course fought on. Now feel exhausted but happy. Next, must walk 2 miles to collect Heaven And Hell by Vangelis, then visit Deborah.
Quarterly backups yesterday, then a small upgrade to Prometheus to permit beats-per-minute of up to 9999. This is obviously of no (well, limited) use musically but can be used to skip beats at high speed for example, as tempo can be set programmatically. This also revealed a slight bug that limited speeds to 1 tick being 64 samples, which is the smallest amount of audio that can be processed (one chunk). I also made rough plans for a painting about the summer heat, with inspiration from Cabanel. I must prove that I can paint better. I must find room and time for a larger work.
Today, underpainting 'Crushed Are The Meek'.
The background is a mix of storm-filled sky and an angry, yet tear-filled, face in this largely abstract work, similar to Picasso's cubism perhaps. The face textures and shading were copied from an Ingres portrait, adding realism to what could easily be too abstracted. The light blue background worked wonderfully.
I'm painting better than ever. What fools those who don't select my paintings for exhibition are!
Collection from Bunbury yesterday, then panels prepared and tracing of the underdrawings for 'Crushed Are The Meek', and 'All The Broken Hearted'.
'Can There Be A Refuge From The Terror?' was not selected for the Three Counties Open, making this the first time I've not been selected for this. Perhaps this was due to the nudity, perhaps due to the digital submission which favours acrylic and digital art and hinders oil paintings. I've entered 5 non-juried exhibitions this year (a high amount, there are a few new exhibitions and Stockport was not juried for the first time this year), and 4 juried. I've failed to be selected for 2 of those, with 2 remaining for judgement, which are very difficult national-level exhibitions.
First day when it's cool enough to paint. Met two 90 year olds yesterday and am thinking constantly about death. Underpainted the small 'Them And Us', here it is, with the colour study on the left.
Listened to Vangelis' Albedo 0.39, and ordered Heaven And Hell. I suspect that these are his best two albums. I didn't like Direct.
Too hot to work yesterday, hooter than any day of the heatwave so far here. It's joy is that Deb has been sheltering here, her 33 degree flat swapped for my relative cool of 28.
In the evening, a trip to Bunbury Church to see the art in their Inspire26 exhibition, I have 3 paintings there. I recognised only 3 names in the catalogue. We spoke briefly to Deb's friend and her daughter, the latter of which is exhibiting.
Today is mercifully milder. An early visit to the moribund Auntie L. I felt weak, then found I couldn't stand up for much longer and had to recover on the floor. My heart rate is 50 to 60 and my strange weakness has continued, a result of the heat perhaps.
Some work however, have finalised the sketch for the 4th painting in my current tranche, 'All The Broken Hearted', and photographed the underdrawing (bless my camera that it can pick up these faint pencil lines!):
In the afternoon, made air-dried clay Golems, inspired by Deb's Prague holiday, then a lighting model for the painting. Generally have felt too tired and unfocused to work at an efficient rate.
