The Self-Isolation Residency 18th April 2020: Day 20

I'm now nearly 3 weeks into this residency and so far I'm happy witht the way the work is going, for a while I wasn't sure. I wondered if it was heading in the wrong direction for a while last week, if the theme for the project wasn't completely wrong, but then I realised that ir was just the painting that was wrong.  Now that I have started this new piece everything feels better.

I'm working quite quickly on this painting, which is always a good sign; it usually means that I am on the right track. If I take a long time on a piece, as I was beginning to on the last painting, it usually means that I am unsure if I am heading in the right direction with it, as proved to be the case. I am much more certain of this new painting, so far it is doing exactly what I want it to. But this quick process does mean that I have reached a critical juncture sooner than I expected.  As I mentioned yesterday after I have have completed to tonal blocking in I start to refine these tonal areas, to drag on the details that I want to include from the series of loose shapes that the blocking in creates. The blocking in is a very quick and free process, the brush moves at pace across the canvas giving just suggestions of what is happening with very loose brush strokes. And it is these loose brush strokes that are in some ways problematic. The free way in which these brush strokes describe the scene and the objects therein can be just throwaway marks destined to be painted over, but as a painter grows in experience these early marks, all be they  a form of under-painting can be crafted with great qualities of their own, so much so that they ask to be regarded as part of the completed work. This is the point that I found myself at this morning, I looked at my work from yesterday and realised that there were certain brush strokes that I need to retain into the finished piece; really good, descriptive marks that could never be duplicated.

This is where I found myself this morning, eager to continue with the painting, but having to take some time out to really closely access what I had already achieved so as to know what to paint over and what to retain. These can be a very difficult decisions as once an area is painted out it can never be retrieved exactly as it was previously so this careful analysis along with precise note taking is the only way to be completely sure; 'retain the top half of the yellow stroke on the left hand back post of the chair, but the lower section should be painted out in red'. From what I can see, I've managed to keep the balance right, at the top is todays progress for you to judge for yourself.