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.'