So yesterday I started to talk a bit about how I think as a painter and how my choice of 'subject matter', assuming that the painting has a subject, is made. Generally, speaking, in what might be thought of as figurative painting, the are 3 subject choices to be considered, portrait, still-life, landscape. As part of the S-IR I am considering all three of these potential areas and how they relate to being isolated by myself for such long periods of time.

One of the first pieces I worked during this period was 'Desiderata' which of course was a self-portrait, which felt like a very important place to start when one thinks of oneself being alone. One becomes insular, or at least that was my original thought, a thought that merits more reflection.

As an offshoot from my self-portrait I began to think about the things that one chooses to surround oneself with if one’s own space, this naturally lead me to consider still-life work, often domestic objects, And so I began to think of myself as a person in a 'space' surrounded by things; the desiderata.

But what about the bigger space that surrounds my small private space? What about the bigger, public space of the landscape? Even this can be considered as desiderata as I very much chose to come and live in this place, this landscape.

And so, I now find myself asking questions about these 3 aspects of painting as I choose to use them to hang my paint upon. There are much more definite links between them all forming in my mind; from the interior private space of the (self) portrait through the more public presentation of my private space of the still-life (desiderata)to the very public space of the landscape that I once again choose to surround myself with.  More time to think and reflect, I think.

Having been a difficult painting in the beginning I am now forming a new appreciation of this piece. As a painter I find the most difficult thing to do is 'to find a reason to paint'.

This may sound like an odd thing for a painter to say but it’s very true. But perhaps to understand what I mean fully I think that I may have to add a little context to the statement. I am, first and foremost a 'painter', I am not an image-maker, which is what the vast majority of painters are. 'Image-makers' may use paint to make their images, but for them the image comes first. I on the other hand am a painter, for me the paint comes first.

Being a painter is an exploration of what paint is and does; a lot of the time as I experiment it is 'convenient' to use an image as a vehicle to 'hang' my paint on; but the painting always begins and ends with the paint. Therefore, out of necessity the image sometimes becomes 'the reason to paint'.

This painting has been frustrating me for a few days now, but at last I thing it's turned the corner and is heading in the right direction.  A major part of the Self-Isolation Reisdency, or indeed any artist residency, is to spend time reflecting on the work that I have made in the past, what I am making now and the work that I may make in the furure. Most of the work that I have been making during the 'S-IR' has to-date been painting and most of that in oils. I love the process of oil painting, most of the time, but like most serious painters I often struggle over subject matter.

Part of my reason for moving to Scotland was to give myself more time to explore 'landspace' both literaly and in paint, I felt that landscape as a subject, although in some ways commonplace, would give me the best opportunity to explore the medium of oil paint to it's fullest. For the last couple of weeks I have been unsure about this idea, but now as this painting begins to develope properly I at least begin to feel that this idea may be vindicated.

'On my easel' is a series of posts that I am adding to the Self-Isolation Residency Blog which will consider a current painting which is within days or sometimes hours of completion. This isn't quite the same as 'work in progress' as many of the pieces under consideration in this category may actually be complete already. These are generally going to be works which I am reflecting on for one reason or another and it is these needs for reflection which are preventing me from 'accepting' the work as complete.'