Today I finished a painting I last touched in May. It's about the bombing of Dresden in World War Two and was inspired for a second time after reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I wrote second time because I had earlier thought of painting this and was finally persuaded when I read that novel. The violets are very strong here and notable because they are neat, pure dioxazine in glazes of different depths. The blackest ones used to describe the outline of the ruins.
I awoke with a nightmare. I'd been playing a fruit machine and winning. For some reason the coins became liquid, water or milk spewing from the machine. I played with 10p and 50p coins although even those seemed to be half coin and half water. My brother appeared and I greeted him warmly, telling him to have a go. I left him to play the machine but I sensed he wouldn't be as lucky as me. Then the action cut to an airport in a country at war and a BBC news correspondent who looked like the actor who played the Curious Orange in Fist of Fun. He was interviewing a general or some official, fighting was taking place in the distance. While the camera was on the interviewee there was ping and gurgle noise. The reporter had been shot live on television. The camera man focused on the correspondent whose neck was torn open blood pouring from the wound. People rushed to help him as he collapsed to the ground, covered in blood and grasping his neck in an attempt to stem the flow. He died, then I awoke.
Today I travelled to Machynlleth to deliver Perfection and Necroamoria, my entry to the competition held there. The journey took all day but I had a nice hour or so in the town. I had one strange moment in a craft shop because I felt I'd been there before, it was exactly like a shop I dreamed about, a year ago perhaps.
Most of the day was spent waiting on the train or for trains. I managed to sketch out a few painting ideas, and some ideas for a new art project too which by chance exactly fits in with my 2010 goals of neurolinguistic surrealism.
Today I finished the underpainting to The Lightning Of Creation. In quality it's one of my finest monoliths. Given that this only took two days I'm frustrated that I'm not painting more right now but daily tasks are getting in the way.
Tomorrow I'm off to Wales to drop off Perfection And Necroamoria for judging in the Tabernacle Art Competition 2009. On Friday I'm going to Ormskirk to drop off two paintings for the West Lancashire Open. Wednesday is Art Support, and on Thursday I hope to be doing some willow sculpture for the first time. I'm already full of ideas for that.
I now have four underpaintings awaiting a glaze later and still a huge pile of drawn out pictures that need starting. I must run!
I bought some glitter yesterday when I wasn't expecting to! Later I discovered it was the perfect thing to add to my current painting, The Lightning Of Creation. The message of an artwork is the most important thing but it's craft and beauty are important too. The glitter for the lightning is perfect here, it is itself creative, a leap above the plain oil paint so to speak and the design and shape of the abstracted zig-zag lightning perfectly suits a "flat" colour.
My recent experiments reminded me of a picture from my earlier days in 2005 called Symphony Of Peace (pictured). My only painting to include glitter, silver, gold and black enamel paint, and silver oil paint. It was painted at a time when I was experimenting with different techniques and materials. A truly positive and happy picture.
Last night I had a dream where I was blind and being targeted by a sniper. It was an unusual dream because it was mostly black, although in the dream white paint glowed, it was at some point squirted out from a tube. My bare neck was touched by someone's hand and that lit up and gave the sniper a target to aim for. I awoke with slight fear and panic.
In other dreams I ran along girders high above the ground, and hopped around on mattresses piled up that for me were risky and dangerous due to their height, but my mother who was also in the dream didn't worry about it.
These dreams relate to my activities from the previous day and are mostly about insecurities about dealing with people.
A tiring day. The plan for the last two days was to paint a picture called The Lightning Of Creation but the smooth poplar wood panel was too absorbent and yesterday's sky looked ugly. I should have either primed it to ensure no absorbency or painted Dutch style with solvent rich media, where the paint behaves like watercolours in the early stages.
Today then I cleaned the panel off and used cellulose thinners to great effect, even the dry oil paint was removed and the original gesso priming. The board was sanded down to the wood and reprimed better than the panel when new. That took over three hours because of the different ways I tried to repair the damage.
I also did my usual editorial duties for Bytten, and wrote two poems on the theme of "Opportunity" for a future photo-book collaboration project. I've sketched out two new songs too and need to get these finished tonight. I've ordered a new batch of epoxy casting resin and pigments and hope to use the poplar panel on a multimedia artwork that combines painting, collage and resin casting, and converted some CD files to MP3, cleared out my old CD-ROM backups and ordered some Lego for the casting, with the hope of using it as an experimental mould (it has the advantage of squareness but also the ability to easily change the size). I re-traced The Lightning of Creation to a new surface, applied the imprimatura and sealed the back of that and the poplar panel with GAC100, then drew up a rough list of sound effects for three new sets. Tomorrow I'll go to Chester to collect my Albion painting.
I'm just back from the reception for the first Jobling Gowler art exhibition. My painting The Silkworm received a judges commendation and I got a generous bottle of bubbly into the bargain. I'm pleased with this, that makes the fourth judges commendation in 18 months and that's one for every competition I've entered that awarded commendations. It's not a prize but I feel that winning a prize is inevitable.
Jobling Gowler have done a first rate job at organising this. The pictures are in he reception area of their offices which I think means its open to the public every day. It corresponds with the Macclesfield Textile Festival which runs for about two weeks until July the 19th. They don't ask for a commission on sales which means that my painting is on sale for a lower than usual price of £495 for a painting of this size.
Next for me is the Tabernacle competition held by Museum of Modern Art, Wales. Delivery of the painting for consideration by the judges is next week.
