The Magic Number

The Magic Number
Oil on Canvas
6x6"

Today's painting is dedicated to my friend Ali Drew. Ali was my neighbor at the Stables Courtyard in Betws y Coed, so we would emerge from our studios several times a day to drink tea and talk about everything in the world. She's a brilliant ceramic artist, living in North Wales, and creates the most beautiful cups out of porcelain. I've never met anyone so committed to the perfection of form. These aren't her cups in the painting, but you can see them on her website at www.alidrew.co.uk. She's also had a little boy since I saw her last, with her lovely man, Ben - hence the magic number.

I'm pleased with the restraint I managed to exercise over myself with the colours today. It started with some quite vibrant yellows and oranges, (which you can still see the remnants of) but they just overtook the forms. I wanted to try and achieve something more delicate - which is difficult for me as my style can tend to be a little heavy-handed (anyone who has played pool with me will attest to my lack of subtlety...as the ball goes crashing off the table into someone's lap) so this is a bit of a challenge for me.

I used to watch Ali carefully developing her forms through repetition and experiment, meticulously mapping every curve and direction of her cups with her hands and eyes - ruthlessly crushing down forms if they weren't just right. The resulting collections were incredibly tranquil, the lack of chaos hypnotising and awe inspiring. I even got to drink out of these incredible things - something bizarre for a 2D artist used to a strictly hands off approach to finished work.

The Line Up (ii)

The Line Up (ii)
Oil on Canvas Panel
8x4"

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You know, so far I haven't felt inclined to anthropomorphosise any of these still life studies - until now. It occurred to me in the night, that the reason I am so compelled by the little espresso cup especially, is for the same reason I was compelled by the little Amish boy standing slightly away from the others in 'Amish Schoolhouse' (below)

Amish Schoolhouse
Oil on Canvas
30x15"
SOLD

There's something quietly confident about this little guy with his hands in his pockets, levelling his gaze straight at you. Even though you can't see his features, you know he's looking at you - analysing you, summing you up.

Back to the cups though, I was experimenting with backlighting, and although I'm not too pleased with the way this one came out, it's a new way of looking at the same subject, and I think it's healthy to challenge yourself in this way. I'll have another shot at it later. Maybe the reason I'm not getting bored with the same subject (like I normally do) is the sense of an underlying drama, or dialogue in these inanimate objects. I think it's a very human thing to interpret meaning into the things we see, to attach some romantic (in the classical sense) idea to things to help us make sense of things.

I'm reading Edward Abbey's novel, 'Desert Solitaire' at the moment, and his resistance to this very tendancy (with respect to the desert) connected with this musing in the night, and compelled me to write about it today.

I'm also 2 chapters into Paul Dorell's brilliant book, 'Living the Artist's Life', which I already highly recommend to anyone working in the arts, or who has to put up with a crazy artist in their life.

The line up

The Line Up (i)
Oil on Canvas Panel
4x8"

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I found these cups at the thrift store yesterday - the best place for random objects I get it into my head to paint! I'm going to experiment with lighting the same subject over the next few days - I went into the studio this morning and the sunshine was casting a beautiful backlight on them, as I 'd left the cups set up from yesterday. I find the simple white forms really peaceful. I'm also stretching canvases today, for my multi-tasking experiment of 3 canvases at once....I might be in the loony bin by next week.