Really tired yesterday after an anxious two hours sleep, my limbs still recovering from the Saturday performance, but I thought it would a good day to paint the Cromwell painting. I really didn't feel like painting, I'm in the zone of music, but generally we can only get anywhere by doing things we don't want to do. Doing what we want can be a downward spiral of lacking in energy, momentum and information. Life is energy, work, and adding information. Relaxation is a winding down, a losing of information, a decay towards death and nothing; it's only by work and pushing that we are alive. To be an artist is to work, push, be busy, and so live brightly.
At some times though, rest is a good idea and it was a long and exhausting day painting the Cromwell painting. It was a very difficult task because I had few source images to copy from and nothing with any level of detail. This is an inherent factor of the concept because I'm painting a historical figure with only one accurate portrait from which all other copies have stemmed. I wanted to change the lighting so it's inevitable that a lot of imagination, that is extra information, is required.
The portrait results were lacking in refinement but the result is passable. In circumstances like this, a study or two is often needed, and what is a study but an attempt at painting, so this can be a study or a finished painting, depending on how I feel about it later. The lower surrealistic parts of the painting were finely painted but didn't work artisitcally, they looked odd and harsh. I was always unsure about this and I've taken too long to develop the painting because I was unsure. Perhaps this test was the only way to work it all out. At 23:30 last night I erased those parts and this morning painted over them in a relatively flat grey, so that the figure seems to be emerging from a mist.
The resulting painting is a flat and blurry. I prefer highly finished paintings with lots of detail, even in the underpainting stage, but for an image loaded with visual uncertainty, this result is perhaps inevitable and still of use; even as a test it would be useful. I'm unsure if I'm happy enough with it to continue. I used Michael Harding's fast drying white, and with colours like raw umber and mars black, the paint was so dry by last night that it was unerasable. The paint was drying too quickly as I used it, making wet in wet details impossible, but I used fast drying colours because time is short. I had hoped to have a painting ready for the R.W.A. submission deadline of next Friday, dependent of course on whether I think the painting is good enough.
Today I'm finally starting to ache less, and full of ideas for the next 'Fishing' themed performance event, and want to program some new audio effects for Prometheus. At 3am on the 8th I found myself listening to The Carpenters, music of great emotion, and was analytical of the production techniques and I had an idea for a chorus effect that might emulate the doubling of vocal tracks in a more naturalistic way than a standard chorus.
My new artist persona for these songs is Marius Fate, and I'll work on this identity over the coming days and weeks. My synth persona, rapidly developed for a photo shoot, was based on metallic red and black. A second, Barry Falcon, lead singer of Shock Falcon was based on red and gold. My piano playing persona is black, white and gold. Arazmax Kane, the artist I became for The Life and Death of Arazmax Kane, was white and gold, and Marius will be black and gold, with extra colours; generally similar but an opposite to Arazmax.
Back to music this week. Full of ideas for future work that must be great and groundbreaking, whether I perform in my personas often or not. I've secured a 30 minute slot in the ArtsFest in Crewe in October, so will develop something for that. I feel I'm making my best work at the moment and must make as much as I can while I have the time, fitness and energy.
