This is one of the most powerful art lessons I ever received: the importance of realizing what colour you actually see as opposed to the colour you “know it is”....

[taken from Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide by Lorena Kloosterboer]

Today I gave up on reading a novel [something I am more willing to allow myself to do nowadays than when I was younger].

It's very short, more technically a novella — about 120 pages — and I got about halfway through it before deciding I'd had enough. The author is, as it happens, a very well known showbiz personality, whose work on screen I have always enjoyed immensely. And, when seeing him on talk shows, I always found his “real life self” to be warm and engaging, although in a quiet way. I guess I was expecting to find his writing to be similarly warm and engaging, and ended up disappointed in that regard.

All along, I was thinking about why this story wasn't connecting with me, and finally I think I figured it out. This guy's writing, at least in this book, is so cold and aloof and disconnected, I got an undercurrent from it that “I don't really care about any of these characters or what happens to them, none of it interests me, so I have no idea why any of it might interest you.” 

This is the first time I can recall being consciously aware of this: part of what I respond to in any creator's work is the love with which they made it. It can be a story, or a painting, or a musical composition, or a blanket — anything, really. But, on some level, I get a sense that the artist was emotionally engaged with their work. “I like this, it means something to me, and if I'm lucky it will mean something to you, too.” I never realized before that I somehow pick up on this unspoken sense of the creator's love, and that this enhances my own appreciation and enjoyment of what they have made.

This may all well be nothing more than my imagination — but, for me, it's a real thing to be taken into consideration. And it reminds me to care about my own work.

Originally I wasn't gonna share this painting here:



Allow me to explain why I changed my mind.

I usually share my pencil doodles on my social media, often to let people see that I don't always have a finished idea in mind, or work to make something good for people to see. It's in the spirit of “this is what it looks like when I hack around”. But my paintings? Usually I only show those when I feel like I've come up with something that people might enjoy looking at.

This wasn't one of those. This was more of a gouache doodle [and an excuse to test-drive the new Pébéo gouache set I recently got]. I posted it as such, primarily to let people see that I often have no idea what I'm doing.

( Here's what was going through my mind while I did this. )

In my experience, paintings that move away from traditional realism aren't often met with much approval. But — to my surprise — I got a few vocal likes on this one, mostly saying that they really liked the colours. One lady said that if she had this, she would frame it and hang it up! So I got her address and gave it to her.

My point is that I have no idea what people are going to like, or not like. I'm tempted to give up trying to guess.

AC that works — both in the house and in the car

The British store finally had cheese and onion crisps in stock, so I got some! Yay!

A week or so ago, I was in the Fergus Scottish Corner Shop to pick up a few UK treats, and on a whim picked up a pack of M&S Digestives. When we got home, I had one with my tea, and was suddenly flooded with memories.

( a lengthy memoir-slash-rant not just about cookies )

the songs of robins

I'm sure this is not the first time I have posted this one, but it remains ever true

My 35th acrylic is a study of Walk to the Museum NYC by Brian Blood. I cropped and modified the composition to fit my canvas and focus on the area that most appealed to me. Unlike the original, I limited myself to a minimal palette of ultramarine, burnt umber, and white. I've used that palette once before and have been wanting to get back to it — this picture suggested to me that it would lend itself to such treatment.

This morning someone phoned our landline. Which is enough of a shock as to be post-worthy on its own, but not why I'm writing:

The guy left a message [cuz I always let unknown numbers leave a message] and it was clearly intended for someone else. So I called him back to let him know he didn't reach the guy he wanted to, and checked to confirm whether he had A) typoed the number or B) been given our number by mistake.

Just wondering: is this the common response to this situation? Or are people more likely to ignore the message, say fuck it, and not think about it any more?

getting something creative done this afternoon when I didn't feel like it

in this case, it was only doing some lettering for upcoming comic strips, so not like real artsy or anything... but at least I did something and didn't just sleep [so wrung out and beat today]