Two busy days. Spent yesterday finalising the next (and hopefully final) draft of How To Organise Your Computer Files. I've made quite a lot of changes since the first proof. Deborah spotted about 40 mistakes of different sorts, and her feedback on other aspects were very useful too. I've added two more pages and a few more illustrations. A second proof is on the way. I think the book will be ready by the end of the month.
Started painting today, and worked on a panel from last year called The Wheel Of Attraction And Repulsion, about the waxing and waning of feelings. The idea was that the painting could hang either way. I completed the underpainting in a few hours:
It's on a smooth panel, cut and drawn out last year. I have a circular frame ready for it. I'm pleased with the ultra-smooth quality of this first underpainting in months. Often it seems that, after an extended break, I come back better than before. The same with piano playing as with painting.
I also added a third glaze layer to a painting from last year, Self Portrait as Tripod. I wasn't happy with the sky and it needed a new layer.
Finally, a colour study for a new work, You Know How It Is When You Remember A Friend:
That's a reasonably large work, but I plan to scale up all of my work so that 50cm is now my standard size. Now to prepare other compositions and drawings. I want to buy more Cobalt Blue! I need more money for paint and need to sell more of my great paintings of the present and past.
In other news, Deb and I have been confirmed as the headline act of a concert in Congleton Library for Make Music Day, on the 21st of June. I have the idea of making it a relaxed event, something of a jam. I'm reminded of the summer event that Sabine Kussmaul and I took part in, in the Iklectik Art Lab in London, a 24-hour concert in 2015.
Tonight will be my first gamer night with Hayden, Simon, and Aff since before the pandemic. Unlike piano playing and painting, I know that my gaming skills will not have improved. I care nothing for gaming.
