4th Bridge

Painting obs just before I go away for my Easter break. You can see here the darker margin continuing to persist while the liquid in the centre of the pool has yet to dry - longer drying time often yields larger crystals.


The edges shown here provide a good example of the accidental (or hitherto incidental) places where the painting may be found. As the frame of mind in which I approached this work, in particular, was very open, it could be these edges provide the inspiration for future exploration.

3rd Layer

Bit of a flat day today so back to the painting.

> The left-hand side with the canvas is drying darker (and more purple) than the side with the printer paper, which is interesting and makes me think perhaps the canvas or its primer are more acidic or alkaline.

> I poured some more liquid strawberry/salt onto the surface of the canvas so forming a kind of pool. After having done this I wondered whether I should have as it disturbed the purplish margin of the canvas side - nevertheless the more liquid the larger the crystals. I do have an intuition that this painting is going to be successful and a move forward.

> The very edges of the painting are beginning to crystalise.

Second Coat

Back from meetings at the Uni and as a counter to a rather grey, drizzly day - more work on the painting:

> with the pink, egg white containing surround almost dry, I applied a red strawberry/salt layer all over, so that the margins were covered and the liquid began to pool in the centre, which was my intention (so that larger crystals will form there).

> currently uncertain as to what the difference will be to those areas underpinned by the printer paper sheet as opposed to the bare canvas but it may be that the vermillion colour is held more fast.

> hard to photograph the painting under neon light (I began work on it around 8pm) so I have provided a couple of images. You can see from these the beginning of compositional features.

> prepared a mix of salt/strawberry tops containing foliage as a separate liquid, but haven't used it as yet.


As always, look forward to seeing what happens next - I'm one of those odd people that finds watching paint dry fascinating.

'I'm painting, I'm painting again'

As the song says*


Just for the hell of it rapidly assembled a painting:

> glued an A4 sheet of printer paper to the right-hand side of a square canvas. Placed canvas flat and face up on my kitchen table, wooden supports and newspaper underneath.

> took half of the strawberry/salt mix I prepared a couple of days ago and whisked it with three egg whites to produce a pink froth (idea I've had for a while - want to see if the egg-white gives a more viscous, therefore more crystal-encouraging medium). Mixture was pinker than I had anticipated. The fried egg yolk sandwiches were delicious.

> applied pink froth to the edges of the canvas (see photos).

> will revisit tonight.



* 'Artists Only' by Talking Heads

'I'm painting, I'm painting again.
I'm painting, I'm painting again.
I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning again.
I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning my brain...'

New Shelves

I'm resurfacing again after being ill with CFS for a while so the world is beginning to take on colour again and my desire to be creative returns.

I posted my Field Report pages last Saturday (20th March) and have emailed Carla Cryptic to resume the threads of our collaboration on a PMusic Single. Also have plans over the Easter break to write up the text for some invited Consembles (more of this later). Have been working on an artist website for my colleague and friend Sarah Bennett - making me consider the possibilities of Chameleon Lectra in this direction (I must update my own site!). So much to think about. Ideas and plans pile up like the excess books that are strewn across the convenient resting places of my flat.

I've been thinking about putting up some new shelves.