I am talking about the sun and mist not the Hokey Cokey. I don’t know what to say really. All a bit of a struggle really today. A small interest was raised by playing with an automatic pen but I couldn’t do more that just trying it out. I haven’t the energy or concentration to attempt the ideas I have in mind. I did another piece I may send off for the collaborative “Drop me a line” show at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery. That’s about it really.
Oh, and did I mention I have lost the will to live?
After I had signed today’s piece and went to photograph it I started to wonder if I had got it the right way round – OK you guessed, it is an abstract work (of a naked person lying on their side or possibly standing on their head). I decided to leave it but now I have looked at the images again I think I like it best rotated 90° anticlockwise! Bugger, I can’t really cheat now! I wonder how I will feel if and when it is opened?
Anyone who knows me would know that I would never put a work by Sandro Botticelli in one of my envelopes. There are many reasons for this:
So now you know, there is no Botticelli in today’s envelope and the odds on it being a Velazquez are not much better!
We have had quite a bit of rain this afternoon and evening and what is engendered in me is a worry about the possibility of leaks at the studio. All was fine when I left but the wind has got up a bit.
As to what art might be engendered by a fair splashing of precipitation the obvious might be a watercolour of umbrellas. If you know anything about me you would have to say the subject is an unlikely one but then this is a funny old project and anything can happen. I can tell you for certain that there is not a genuine Botticelli painting inside. I might make a collage from images of old masters and pop it in an envelope with a message like today’s.
It was bearable in the studio with my thermals and hat so I worked on my large black square watercolour and on the multiple black squares I started last week. Whether or not I did a black square for my #Letter365 piece is of course open to conjecture: I am saying nothing.
I had a doubt if I would be able to stick it out at the studio for long enough to do today’s piece and, as I noted on the envelope, I was prepared to bring my materials home and do it here. As it turned out I was inspired to create a piece to send to an artist creating a collaborative installation at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery which I was alerted to today by Paula Youens. The deadline is Tuesday so I needed to get it in the post. So I donned my thermal merino wool base layer and thermal sweater and went to the studio where I drew the infrared heater closer and kept on my coat and merino wool hat and was delighted that I didn’t need my fingerless gloves on! i was also delighted with the two pieces I created, especially the one for #Letter365. It went exactly to plan and worked out exceedingly well though it bears no resemblance to Mr Kipling cakes.
In a conversation I had last Friday with two artists it was suggested that having a studio that is not too warm and comfortable can help to keep you from getting to comfortable about your work. It was suggested that it can be a spur to creativity and keeping the flow of new ideas. I’m not dismissing the notion but as I am never short of ideas I’ll happily sacrifice some for an equable ambient temperature in the studio!
A report has come in that a giant banded snail mail snail, Helix preposterous, was seen yesterday on the cycleway near the Coop heading towards Bridport. Just such a snail was last seen on the 12th October 2014 collecting #Letter365 No220 for delivery. Has the snail still got the piece? Has it eaten it? Will it get to Bridport Arts Centre in time? Is it indeed the same creature? Only time will tell!
I don’t know what I can say. I did my work. I put it in an envelope with a stamp. I posted it. Then went to a contemporary music concert. The artwork is something I have been wanting to do more of.
I have been busy all day, much of it on #Letter365 business and I hadn’t the chance to do my piece earlier. This evening we went to the private view of the new show “Theatre of the Soul” at the Bridport Arts Centre and then off for a meal with some new friends. I never really had a major concern that it would come good but I admit to a minor concern especially as it took longer than anticipated to create the envelope. In the end it worked out better than I ever could have hoped. I had to drop the idea I originally had as I knew I could never complete it on time. A chance find (I am always open to serendipity) added a structural element and a reference to modern art and my response to that particular subject.
Sadly, in my haste to make sure it got posted before midnight I forgot the stamp. I forgot the stamp partly because I had forgotten/had no time to buy any first class stamps today. i had intended to use a second class stamp and annotate it with something like “second class post but still first class art”. I forgot that too. So something had to give in my haste but I trust the artwork didn’t suffer.
As it turned out I didn’t begin to make my piece today until I got on the train at Waterloo and although I was settled in well before the train set off, it was inevitable I couldn’t complete the task before we got going. So its creation spanned distance as well as time. That was actually important to the idea which related both to childhood train travel (most memorably in Scotland) and to the history of abstract art.
However I had forgotten to buy any stamps this morning so ended up delivering it by hand when i popped into Bridport to get a takeaway. This proved more complicated than I thought. First because the Thai restaurant I had chosen was closed for a couple of weeks! Then when I got to the Arts Centre there was a film in progress so I couldn’t get in and had to put it through the letterbox, quietly untaping it first where it had been secured to stop it flapping in the strong winds.
