Not been too brilliant over the past while – too cold, too dark – and for me it’s all becoming so – intense – me – my art – everything….

And so it grows – Intensity I mean and where the painted subject loses influence in the painting and is being coloured (excuse the pun) more and more by the artist’s state of mind, rather than the physical attributes of the subject.

This is an impression of Strasbourg with the cathedral in the background and the streetscene as foreground with the buildings towering on each side.  Tried to show the movement and intensity of the city with overbright colouration and out of true perspectives.  The cathedral dominates and vies for competition with the tall buildings and the bustle of the street life coupled with the vibrant colours, reds, yellows and blues gives the image a busy almost frentic energy.  So what was I seeing here?  Colours – yes….. Noise – yes…..Crowds of people – yes…..the buildings threatening with their leaning perspectives – yes!
I remember I wasn’t too well that day and everything was over-noisy and too bright, dreamlike almost and intensity was all.  Pain meds were in full spate and I was so glad to get back to the hotel – but it was all there in my memory – the colours the vibrancy – everything………..and the result – here…

Strasbourg impression

From Strasbourg to a floral effort.  Utterly different of course but this one still shows the limitations (or maybe not as the case may be) of health issues and state of mind.  Perhaps when one’s state of mind is altered, then altered too is the perception process – in a good way in the art that follows.

And maybe much better art than the mundane pictorial representation that could have occurred if perfectly well and feeling fine.

Flora

Flora

Here the vase (there IS a vase) is somewhat lost at the foot.  The reflections threw me so I painted the highlights with no subject which is fun I note and the flowers are often shown double imaged which is another problem, though in the case of a painting is not really an issue. Unless you are doing a precise pictorial it’s of no real consequence at all and this is certainly not a pictorial style but more expressionist.  So far fortunately not an “abstract” expression – though who knows what next week will bring?

Somebody told me earlier that it’s sunny outside, which is nice and at long last I say, but it will have to stay outside, as here in this corner of the house it’s as usual – a periphery of around 12 feet, slightly monochrome and distinctly chilly at the moment.  Can’t feel the legs at all though that’s not unusual anyway and it appears to me that somebody’s  got it wrong again as it seems damned cold to me.
I was checking the radiators the other day as again I was cold and amazingly got burns on my right hand, as it seems they were on and set pretty high – funny I didn’t feel a thing myself.

Weird really as my hand is bandaged now and I don’t remember who did that….

Sorry I’ll have to sign off for now – not feeling too bright