Shakespeare Drawing, Wonderland Rehearsal 2

A full day yesterday, started by finishing the drawing to the Shakespeare painting, which took until 2pm. Then Deb and I did a second rehearsal of the Wonderland performance. Much better than before but there is so much to do on this, as much memorising the music as well as the different technical setups. I will probably use my larger 1000W amp for this, the venue doesn't need such loudness, so I could use my 150W monitor, but the stereo would make everything better.

This took the rest of the day. Today I've made Prometheus work in 19-tones-per-octave mode to see how it sounds, this is perhaps the next more popular alternative to 12. I still keep the CDEFGAB notation in the sequencer though. I can't easily redefine the cents per note here, there are always 100, but these are (obviously) smaller in 19-tone. Should I add this as a fixed feature? If so I'll need, I think, to rename the notes somehow...

Ethics Study, Self Portrait as Tripod Again

A busy day, still enthused about painting but unable to charge into it as it's a music rehearsal day tomorrow. I started by making a lighting model, and painting a colour study for the new 'Ethics' painting. I also took some reference photos of flowers for the Shakespeare drawing.

All of this took quite a few hours. Then I decided to add a new glaze layer to Self Portrait as Tripod, which I wasn't quite happy with... the sky was too bland, yellow and grey, when it needed more drama, more darkness, and more variety to the hue. Glazing was time consuming and slow, partly because I don't like to glaze with opaque colours - this defeats the beauty and point of glazing, but it makes darkening and smoothing more difficult, generally, this needs more layers.

I used Michael Harding's Burnt Sienna here, almost an identical hue to Blockx Mars Yellow Orange, though the latter is fantastically powerful and opaque and the former so very weak. I now recall that Raw Sienna is also fantastically weak, to the point of being pointless, not so much transparent as severely lacking in power of any sort. The Harding Sienna was frustrating, so I mixed a similar hue with cadmium lemon (Cadmium Yellow Pale in Blockx, this is actually a very primary yellow, called lemon in most ranges) and benzimidazolone maroon. I tend to favour Blockx Primary Yellow, also benzimidazolone, because it's almost identical to the cadmium in tone and usage, but more permanent and less toxic. Today, I just felt like a change. This new orange was far more powerful and better in every way.

For the darker parts of sky I used Ultramarine Violet, also a supra-delicate colour, but I can forgive it in this lovely hue, the most beautiful of all colours. It did mean that the upper sky is a little transparent. I might have to add yet another layer here.

I want to paint more - need to! But events feel in the way. I'll complete our rehearsal tomorrow, and try to work on the paintings in progress next week.

TMBWOD Proof, Tracing Ethics,

Managed to complete a first draft of The Many Beautiful Worlds last night, and have ordered a proof.

Today, a steady day working on the underdrawing and composition to a painting tentatively called Volcanism & Social Media. While working on it, the title of 'Ethics in the Time of Revolution' came to mind because there is a lot of pressure and social judgement in the painting, a connection to the theme of 'Cancel Culture' which, I noted today, is a manifestation of the same young vs. old emotions present during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, even if, in the latter case, this was intentionally rationalised and encouraged by the government. I want to explore this more from an ethical perspective; perspectives on the philosophy of kindness. This is a separate issue from perspectives on the philosophy of democracy, which is (and was) equally pertinent. A strong component of 'Cancel Culture' is not ethics, but a division between individual determinism, the libertarianism of 'mob rule', vs. parliamentary determinism where groups elect experts to govern.

The painting will be a tiny comment of this subject which is worthy of a lifetime of masterpieces. I finalised the drawing before noon and spent the next five hours preparing the panel and tracing it over. This job so tedious; eye and hand straining. I listened to music while doing it: Novella by Renaissance, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Alan Parsons Project (which was notably better than Renaissance, though, in general, I prefer the former) and Vulnicura by Björk. These works were unified by the quality of the lyrics, the Alan Parsons one the only one to hold together as a musical whole.

Oh for more time and more resources to create.

Frame Complete, TMBWOD 2nd Edition, Music

Have completed the framing of the paitning behind glass, here is a look at the finished back. These spring clips are the correct way to hold a painting when it's flush to the frame:

The only thing left was the final label.

I've spent most of yesterday and today re-reading and editing the new 2nd edition of The Many Beautiful Worlds of Death, I do love the book. Just about every page has had some change to it, though nothing major, mainly improvements to clarity, tidying language, fixing punctuation. The font treats semi-colons and colons oddly, both look odd, so I'm toying with replacing all of them with another font, though, of course, that makes future editing a bit of a pain.

I'll order a printed proof soon. In other news, our Apocalypse of Clowns CDs will be arriving tomorrow. I can't wait to see these. This, plus The Myth of Sisyphus and Nightfood, constitute my best albums so far. Amazing to think that between 2000 and 2010 I sold 50 to 100 CDs, but since around then have barely sold one (except at live events). I read a statistic that one in ten people spend £500 to £1000 on music per year, that is recordings and memorabilia, rather than live event tickets. With a streaming world which charges £10 a month, then this will obviously lead to a massive loss for the music industry, which is apparently happy to see this happen. Someone really needs to design a new physical format that has industry wide agreement and support.

Frame Restoration

A slower day today. The frame seemed to set solid overnight, better than I expected, although some liquid Titebond dripped out at one point so I'll wait 24 more hours for everything to set. Here is the frame so far:

It had two plastic strips, probably part of the original hanging mechanism, these needed removing. This wasn't easy. The plastic is too hard to slice with a sharp knife and too awkward to saw. The best tool was my reciprocating vibrating multi-tool (nobody has thought of a better name). Despite being advertised as useful for 1001 jobs, it's only really useful for sawing holes in the middle of a block of wood. It did the job here, though it tended to melt the plastic a little:

Then I cut glass, spacer, backing board, so everything is ready to frame. This took me up to 11am. Then a pause for a visit from Nick.

After that I scanned in the newly updated version of Land of Beauty and Sorrow. Here is a comparison of the before vs. after paintings:

For the week I want to update The Many Beautiful Worlds of Death, and work on some of these paintings in progress. We have a new rehearsal of Wonderland scheduled for Friday. I really need to sell my Yamaha SY-85 so that I can buy a new replacement keybord for live performance. My piano is wonderful, but too heavy and too delicate for live play.

More Frame Work, Pixar's Soul

More work this afternoon; cut two canvas panels for the Shakespeare and Volcanism paintings, using a snap-off knife which is always unpleasant on 3mm MDF, but just about doable. A jigsaw would be easier.

After that, I took down a heavy 50x60cm frame. B&M used to sell these as mirrors, solid wood covered in plaster and mouldings, very cheaply for the work, about £10 for a 40x30 frame, £17 for 50x60cm. Now, all frames are the cheap hollow plastic (at the same size), but I've bought a lot of the solid wood-plaster ones, perhaps 15 over the years. These were probably made en-masse in some far-east place at really low prices. Now, nobody could make these at this price, they would cost hundreds at this quality, the last of a line of solid wood frames. So I've spent most of the evening painting one in gold paint, using liquefied gold acrylic for the last step, so that it evaporates to give an even coat.

I also stuck the wooden frame to the Ernie Edgeley frame. The epoxy putty which held the fixings fell away from the frame quite easily... this made me reconsider how to attach the wood here; there aren't many options. In the end I used a pool on Titebond, and fitted lots of Milliput around the edge. This is the yellow-green Milliput which I hate. I love the concept of epoxy putty, and like the use the white stuff but the yellow-green stuff is terrible in every way, it flakes rather than sticks, is rock hard even in the hottest of summery months and stains everything. I wish someone made something like Milliput but softer and more sticky, yet with an longer working time. Perhaps I should experiment with making my own linseed putty.

In other news, Deb and I watched the Pixar film Soul last night. Beautiful and imaginative, but so disappointing, the story was a rambling mess that missed so many opportunities. The film builds to the climax of the protagonist musician playing with his dream jazz hero, even conquering death to do this, yet to subvert this apparent cliché of a climax, he doesn't enjoy the hit-gig (despite being an amazing piano player, he has apparently never played a gig) and, amazingly, loses his passion for music! The film rambles on for 40 more minutes leaving various unexplained plot holes along the way. Richard Ayoade, amazing in everything, is poor here. Graham Norton is stunningly miscast in a part that Johnny Depp probably would have got if he weren't 'cancelled'.

Scoring, Restoring Venice Painting and Frame

Managed yesterday to work on the Wonderland music, and tidy up some musical notation for existing music. I've generally done this for music I've played myself, as a mnemonic, but sometimes I finish the notation a little more. Today I've added some of these scores to my website, for some of The Anatomy of Emotions, Cycles & Shadows, Music of Poetic Objects, and the basic Clown Face melody. The differences in how the score sounds to the performance is huge, compare By Candlelight and my recording of it, for example, but it's nice to have some music up there, in case anyone would like to play these.

Yesterday I also scaled up the underdrawing for a painting currently called Volcanism and Social Media, I'll work on this and the Shakespeare painting today.

One other job is some cleaning and reframing a painting by Deborah's father. It is 40 years old and very yellowed, and painted on a Daler board, textured cardboard, and with no glass or backing board, held with mere masking tape. It was bent and very dirty, and the cheap plastic frame is falling apart. The frame looks nice from the front though, and it reminded me that even old and cheap frames have a unique heritage and are part of art history. It is a photo frame, with lost glass and no firm way to hold the painting in place.

I started work by cleaning the front of the painting with cotton buds and a damp cloth, wiping excess dirt with mere water. I don't intend to restore it or remove varnish, merely clean and stabilise. I cleaned up the bent cardboard on the back and painted it with Golden GAC100 medium to waterproof and seal it. The board was slightly bent backwards, the oil painting surface convex. This is ideal, as painting anything water based on the back will tend to expand and slightly bend the panel in the opposite direction. The acrylic medium won't sink deeply in anyway, and there was little or no evidence of change to the bend. These small steps have instantly stabilised the painting for many more years. One other job is to write the title, artist name, and date on the back. These are essential steps that separate any old painting from an artwork with a history and provenance.

The frame is thin hollow plastic and little more. There is no way to hold the painting, and the yellowed masking tape that was holding it had fallen off, making the painting loose.

I've crudely attached some hangers using epoxy putty - this is much better than before, the hollow back was hanging from a nail, but isn't as neat as I would like. My plan is to use more putty to glue a wooden frame about 20mm wide into the hollow. This will be strong enough to hold the frame together and can be screwed into to hold the painting in place too. This, and the putty, will also secure the flimsy frame. I could add glass and a spacer too. It could be left without glass, as it has been for 40 years, but glass would stop more dirt; it will be hung in a kitchen, so best kept isolated from the atmosphere as much as possible.

Wonderland Notation

One lesson of existence is that a group of idiots working together will achieve more than one genius of any ability.

An exhausting day yesterday doing various things, including a unusual day trip and household jobs. In the intermediate time I've been transcribing, scoring, the Fall in Green music. It's less important to exactly notate recorded works, like Jabberwocky or Harr Kasperle or Lost at the Fair, but I still need to notate the details of these for playing live (they have to be at close to the recordings, ideally the same but better). For live works that aren't recorded, I can, could, and have, make up things in a more haphazard way, so that no two performances are the same. In practice, I stick to the same key, same mood, same instrumentation, but over many performances these tend to be 'sanded down' to an equal smoothness and so they become very similar each time. There are many new pieces in our new show, Wonderland, and a few ones that have not been recorded, but most have been performed live at least once, so I need to note down what I played more exactly than before... all of this work, for this tiny few minutes for a small crowd. The notation is for my memory, but it should theoretically allow others to play it, so this is an important part of the art too; in some ways this is far more important as this notation will outlast me and any memory of us, but this also adds to my burden, as I need to do it reasonably well and thoroughly, more than I would need for a mere mnemonic.

This takes time and is frustrating due to that. It feels like I'm tied in knots of old-ground, a tedious transcribing job anyone could do, rather than working on important future works that only I can. In painting, design of the first batch of small works is complete, so I'm starting to draw out a few larger ones, like the Shakespeare one. Perhaps then, I'll move to even larger ones... I have a few ideas this morning.