Woke late after a poor night's sleep. I dreamt of owning 5 or 6 guitars, in a small cottage near Queen's Park where I lived with my mother.
I read a bit about Fernand Khnopff and Holman Hunt, then a few pages from Diary of a Genius. By 10:30, I was ready to start painting and added the final layer to The Starcrossed Escape Of The Psychological Cosmonaut, finishing at 16:00. The important thing is exact colour matching now as this layer must blend with the background invisibly. An perfect join is impossible as the texture is different here, but few will notice.
The flesh colours were, unusually, transparent maroon (still the superlative red!) and ivory black, fading up to yellow ochre light and white. The ivory from Old Holland is very leaky and sticky, to the extent that just touching the lid covered my hands with an unpleasant tacky layer. I hardly ever use the paint, so it's worth buying a new clean tube for the future, it will last me years or decades. I have a new and unopened tube of Michael Harding's ivory but that is already very leaky and covered in linseed slime. Harding's black is probably too liquid anyway, so I've ordered a Blockx. It will be easier to keep them clean in my new paint box.
The flesh glazing went fine. The hair was more problematical, it tended towards too much power and green, though the fine strands were enjoyable to whip with the rigger. I need to paint more flowing hair, this is a rarity for me. I added a few more stars for a final touch, and a signature.
In a day or two I will look at it again and can then be sure that the painting is done. I've ordered more brushes too, and a bag for my keyboard stand upper-tier. One thing about live music performance is that everything needs a bag.
I need places to show and sell my work. I also need to frame more; for the future if not now. Bouguereau painted 6 days per week, apparently, but who prepared his canvases? Who drew and transferred the drawings? Who framed the work and shipped things to galleries? I expect this is included in the 6 days. I work 7 days a week without a gallery space and still have too little time (although Bouguereau didn't write and publish books, music, computer software).
I must start to work on larger works. I painted a study for one called Sappho years ago, and have one new painting, which is an important one. I'm full of ideas and urgency. I would also like to write two more book about painting; a manual and a new aesthetic theory. 21st Century Surrealism had some ideas, but was essentially a partial analysis.
Tomorrow we will rehearse the full Wonderland show for the Knutsford Music Festival. I watched a fragment of a Rush concert today. Geddy Lee was playing bass and two synths and singing... Perhaps I could play my three keyboard and a guitar at some point.
