ARTISTS TALKING

# 28 [25 April 2008]

...an email just popped up from Danny Smith director of Jubilee Action and Jubilee Campaign...it simply reminds me, that so much that we do and concern ourselves with in the Arts is nothing really when compared to the suffering in some parts of this world.

# 27 [23 April 2008]

St. George's Day...a special day today...Shakespeare's birthday...he also died on the same date...I married into an acting family...both my parents-in-law are Royal Shakespeare Company actors (Cherry Morris Murray sadly died of cancer three years ago, taken ill during a performance at The National...worth googling, because she was brilliant) and Emily was a professional actress too...being a quiet painter and occasionally surrounded by actors has encouraged me and given me more confidence to create and follow my heart. My old school too is celebrating today...St. Georges College, Weybridge...but more importantly...it's my mothers' birthday today!...mmmnn...some tiffin and a nice cup of tea...

# 26 [19 April 2008]

Saturday morning. Just sitting quietly in the roof space, listening to rain fall on the window panes.

I love the rain, the simple sound of water, where my mind can gently meander and visualise the world outside and around me. Images never to be painted directly, but certain to find a place somewhere within the simplified, stripped-down watercolours for my new series in my French studio.

Complexity and simplicity, areas of busyness and areas of calm. A continuing and important philosophy/psychology for my work, where the minds-eye naturally wants to move away from a busy image after a while to rest. Rather than move outside of the image entirely, there is space within the image, to find that subconcious calm we all ultimately seek. This all helps to balance and harmonise the work, ultimately giving and not taking anything from the mind of and the enjoyment of the viewer.

# 25 [14 April 2008]

...an OFF day today...another cold, another sore throat and a headache. OFF days are important to help balance the mind and body. It's often a natural physical response to having done too much.

Van Gogh, Emil Nolde, Vasily Kandinsky, all had OFF days, so I'm in good company. Then again, so did Adolph Hitler, Himmler, Goering and Goebbels, so it's best not to compare...?!

# 24 [10 April 2008]

Seeking sanctuary...a safe place, a quiet place, a contemplative place, a comfortable place, a place to reflect for a few moments or as long as it takes. Similar size to a small garden shed and placed every mile or every five or ten miles by the side of the road in all countries, depending on the need of individuals. Simply walk in day or night, sunshine or rain, close the door, stand, sit or lie down.

It's raining, you enter and select from a drop down menu on one of the surrounding screens the mood you are in at present. Enter any other thoughts, emotions, concerns.

Relax, close or open your eyes and experience a contrived world of images, sounds and smells to lift you out of yourself and position you in a place where you feel more positive, more self-assured, more hopeful, more peaceful.

When you feel ready to, press the screen in front where it reads,

'Now return to your important life and try to remember you and everyone is an artist and everything is art'.

The door opens and outside it's still pissing down with rain...

# 23 [9 April 2008]

Ever accidentally dropped a tin of paint down the stairs?...I just have.

The mind, the imagination, the terror, is all focused in slow-motion.

All I could do was stand helpless and stiffly on the stepladder, wide-eyed in stunned, expletive silence and observe the totally random bounce of the tin as it's acrylic white contents decided where to splish, splash, splosh, on the carpet on the walls and eventually on Emily's brown suede boots that had carefully positioned themselves in the perfect spot in the hallway below, to receive the final vestiges of wicked white dribble from this cantankerous tin and with particular evil impressive skill, land, perhaps even laughing, the right way up.

Serendipity?...not!

# 22 [8 April 2008]

Having restored, designed and built hundreds of gardens, I actually have grown to love weeds...and having read architecture for three years, I love playing with perspective that is incongruous and doesn't actually work...

# 21 [7 April 2008]

sabine7...seventhheaven...

# 20 [6 April 2008]

It was just such a lovely civilised Saturday evening...with a close school friend, since the age of seven, his family and others...greeted warmly with champagne, quail eggs, canapes...and a string quartet in the drawing room.

As we left in the early hours from their Surrey home, he showed me an oil painting he and his wife commissioned from me twenty years ago. They are both geologists and I remember wanting to evoke the feeling of the earth, striation and layering. It took eight months to complete.

He showed me a specialist geolists tool within the picture that I had no knowledge of or intention of painting while creating the work. I do however, remember 'arriving in the zone' while painting. I so look forward to similar experiences again in my studio in France.

It's morning, it's snowing and settling now...a killer sore throat and a cold...and it's all beautiful...

# 19 [4 April 2008]

Just returned...from an early morning walk on the beach with Smartie. It cleared my head and got me thinking. It's too easy to be negative and I'm not a negative person. Striking a balance in this blog between discourse and diatribe has been an eye opener for me.

This blog, this diary, is helping me to understand where I am in the art world. No one owes me a living and I am very fortunate to be in a position where I will be able to paint with fewer distractions. I've been stuck inside decorating this house to sell and to move to France. I'm an outdoor person and things will change for the better.

We want to simplify our lives and add meaning and this is all a major change for me and my wife Emily...and Smartie...this is really where this blog begins...