I'm back to painting for a short while over the coming week, as I continue work on the ivy picture. Painting mediums should get more flexible and richer, slower in drying time and more liquid (less viscous) as they get progress. Poppy oil is not very flexible but slow drying and so is of limited use. Liquin is the most flexible but also the fastest drying, it also includes a solvent and so it is of no use as a glazing medium and I use it only for the imprimatura. The war of the media viscosities seems to have inspired my latest poem which now follows.
The Last Day
The sun will come up in a thick dark sky.
The silhouette building shapes silently stare.
The hand of a thing will shudder and die
like so many unfinished jobs everywhere.
A cold oily ocean will flop on the shore
as feathers float earthward,
as bones lean and fall.
A sound will appear like a deep deep drum.
Air pure and incredibly still.
Then everything fades to an infinite grey,
on the last day.
