Afternoon Pieces
Such weird hours…late nights, drowsy afternoons. Feel like I’m hungover, haven’t had a drink in months. Gotta go to the studio, haven’t been there in ages. Jesus it’s cold, dark too. Feel like a bedraggled cat. Need to do some work, Nicholas will be up soon. Take out the paint, go on. First 20 minutes always the toughest. Maybe I’ll look at some things, rearrange some paintings on the wall.
That’ll jolt me. Hmmm, staring, what am I staring at again?…maybe exit, if I go now, I’ll catch the last of that series. Studio’s a mess. Hang on, that’s cool, didn’t see that before…is it a painting worth tearing up? Has some nice parts, bits of texture, looks good with that scrap lying on top of it…where was that from?...some failed priming experiment, landscape painted on top, dry brush marks nice against oily squiggles of the other painting. Colours a bit neutral, lot of trouble for a dull piece. Fuck it I’ll try. Fit the two together, just like a puzzle. So many strips, could number them. Terracotta strip on top, too contrasty with the grey…more gradual, paler pink on top. What did Winifred Nicholson say?...paint a colour not a form, something like that, loved that show. Kinda like the strips stapled to the wall, have to brave to present them like this…too scrappy. I’ll take a picture of it, God, selfie mode, do I look like that!? I’ll stitch them together, stitching and painting…actually go pretty well together, it’s the canvas, the fabric, lends itself to painting and stitching. Hard to get pins through three layers of canvas…need a thimble. Want severe stitching, bold, separate stitches on the border, could weave the strips on the side?…maybe keep it simple, enough going on. Stitching, can do it at home, don’t have to be in the studio, Nicholas could be playing with his toys while I’m working, great, this is how I’ll get ready for the show, just small hours here and there siphoned off to get the work done. Cumulatively, that’s a lot of hours, it’ll be grand…Okay gonna start putting this together, drawer’s pretty stiff, all threads are there, proud of that sorting job, can’t believe I didn’t know the sequence of a rainbow until recently…MAMA…hhhhi love, everything OK? right, come back to it later...Satisfying, this stitching, slow, meditative, could do this for ages……………………..Dammit, thread’s caught again, Ouch!, hate pins. Lot of work for little ground, this stitching, takes ages. Right, can’t do another stitch, I’m done, get me out of here, need to paint…haven’t painted faces in a
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