I’ve been painting a contemporary landscape in my head for a long time. The idea first appeared about five years ago while working on the tiny plot of organic vegetables at the back my house. I was just putting in my rocket salads when along came this guy with a giant mechanical machine spraying chemicals on the field surrounding us. Until recently this had been a meadow with a very diverse ecosystem. I liked the wildness of...
He describes Giacometti's' mood swings, his silence, his laughter and joking and how he "demolished with joy” the portrait at different stages only to begin again the next day. It's an in-depth record of what it was like to sit for Giacometti. There was a great line in it when Giacometti says to his irate sitter: ''The best way to obtain success is to run away from it. I was looking for old footage of...
"A grey that lives in the shadow of green" is how I would describe this colour I made by accident two nights ago. It's like a wet plaster colour. I think it came from looking at frescos in Florence and Arezzo recently. I have since learnt that there are two schools of thought when it comes to restoring frescoes. Years ago they would have tried to repair any damage in...
A few days ago I went to see Masaccio’s frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. I have been painting a lot more than I thought I would since coming to Italy and usually if I get into a run I tend not to venture too far from the studio in case I fall out of the work groove. I'm only writing this now because I'm a bit lost today and don't know what to do with myself so I guess it’s a good time to jot down...
