A nice day yesterday, delivering The Love Reliquary. How friendly and stimulating the gallery is.
This morning I completed my story for the Cheshire Prize for Literature, and have entered that, with a poem too.
My plans for the year have changed, entirely due to the Oil Art Advisory. The re-recording of The Myth Of Sisyphus, Nightfood, and more will be put on hold and I'll focus on painting this year. It will take a few days to swerve into this new direction.
My painting has had many spurts of growth and slowdown. The '21st Century Surrealism' exhibition at the Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery was a peak of my self-organised shows, to be followed by a similar (greater?) show at Nantwich Museum, yet that was cursed and hobbled by Covid-19. Covid, from the start of 2020 gave me 5 years of productive work on vocal music and song production; and gave me time to remaster some of my game catalogue, but my greatest love, oil painting, has been asleep.
Time is short. I must make the most of a 2026. Whatever I've done before seems poor, I know I can do better. I must struggle and wrestle to do my best.
In technical news, my Laropal A81 seems to be recalcitrant in dissolving. A first batch of a small 8g in 30ml or solvent worked, leaving a very fluid result. A second batch of 15g seems to leave some undissolved in the bottom, despite the liquid seeming to be rather fluid, barely oil-like never mind honey-like. I'd have hoped that it would simply get thicker and thicker. Perhaps a 2:1 white-spirit:isopropanol solvent needs more alcohol? I know that this white spirit is not sufficient alone to dissolve it. Perhaps that is the ultimate problem here. Perhaps a small experiment with pure isopropanol is merited. I'm using up precious bottles and solvent without results.
