A slower day. I put up a washing line post, which required digging and cementing. After digging down about 60cm I put the pole collar in, then the pole and attached a piece of string as plumb line to make sure it was vertical, then I decided to fill the lower half with gravel, thinking that this might be more concrete-like and rigid than just cement. I then filled the top with liquid mortar. Soon after though, I regretted the gravel part. I could have either mixed it into the cement, but I think just cement alone would have been better. Well, an hour later (it was quick-drying mortar) the thing was set. It seems solid enough, but I think I could do better next time (which may never happen, this was my first pole assembly in 48 years).
I made some rough plans for paintings, slowly awakening my painting brain, and ordered £75 of new oil paint; new tubes and colours are always inspiring and I'm already excited to paint with them. Sometimes the very act of buying new things creates motivation. I bought eight new tubes, so no colours were particularly expensive. Of the colours I do use regularly, the most expensive is probably the cobalt turquoise at £35 a tube. Fortunately I don't like Cobalt Violet, which is one of the most expensive common colours at £55 a tube. Michael Harding sells genuine vermilion at £70 or so. I had a 1kg jar of the pigment a few years ago which was theoretically worth £500 but it's so very toxic. I was happy to sell it on eBay for £20 or so just to be rid of it.
I like Michael Harding's colours, the tube design and quality and texture, and so wish he would grind blues and greens and violets in safflower rather than linseed as I think it's a crime the grind beautiful ultramarine in yellowing linseed. I use Harding's white (which he does grind in safflower) but only use his reds and yellows for this reason. I prefer Blockx generally, not only because they use poppy oil, I like the firm and highly pigmented texture. Their tube design is poor though and is prone to cracking and leaking. Old Holland are my next favourite, but they are overly expensive and secretive about the exact ingredients. I still prefer Winsor and Newton for some colours.
I also updated Mapper to v1.16 after finding a minor bug, and found another minor bug in Prometheus so updated that to v2.70. I've also read about Spotify Canvases, small 3 to 5 second looping animations which apply per-track. It would be good to make one for each new song release and I will investigate.
