All artists dread running out of ideas and staring at blank canvases. I’m no exception and although I’ve had the excuse for not painting because my priorities are my family, my wife in particular, there have been some limited opportunities to paint which I haven’t taken because there has been a total mental block. I’m happy to say that, thanks to a phone call from a friend, this situation is now over and I’ve seen many new images that have rekindled the mysterious spark I needed to create some new work.
Although I’ve managed relatively little, there was some music in one of the August Promenade concerts that was enough to make me return to artistic endeavour. This was an evening when East met West with a performances of Passages, a collaboration in the 1960’s between the Indian composer and sitar player Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass from America. It was performed at the Royal Albert Hall featuring Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Ravi, who is also a virtuoso sitar player and a composer herself, other Indian musicians and the Britten Sinfonia under the baton of Karen Kamensek. The sounds were hypnotic, blending the conventional sounds of orchestral instruments with those of the free flowing Indian music. It was a magical concert with unique experiences – meditative, rhythmic, pulsating and at times very exciting music. For me Anoushka Shankar’s stage presence and wonderful playing was the highlight of the concert and I set out to try and paint her portrait as she appeared in this performance.
Anoushka Shankar
I also looked again at the sketch I had made a few months ago of Paula Rego (see the April blog) and decided to have have another attempt to show her pretty much as she was during my brief encounter with her some years ago. The likeness is still not fully captured, but I think it is a slight improvement on my previous attempt, and was actually finished in much quicker time than the earlier one.
Paula Rego (2)
The catalyst for taking up the paintbrushes again was a phone call about a series of art programmes which are shown on the Community Channel which is a freeview channel set up to assist communities and charitable causes. The series is entitled Colour in Your Life and feature visits to artists studios to see them at work and demonstrate their techniques. The beauty of these programmes is that they feature many female artists some of whom have fascinating backgrounds. The presenter is Australian and many of the artists, male and female, are from that country. There is a very broad range of style and subject matter and it is clearly aimed at all levels of ability. It’s done wonders for my confidence and helped me remember some vital advice that I was given some years ago – to take risks and relax more rather than constantly agonise and over analyse your work! Looser brush strokes and bold mark making are also evident in much of the work being shown. It should also never be forgotten that accidents and mistakes can be corrected and that crazy mixing sometimes produces astonishing results.
