Use more paint

It took me a long time to get going today.  I didn't have any success in the pastel society this year and when I was thinking about it, I mused that they don't like flowers.  Of course, we don't paint to to be selected, bought or even cheered on, but it did go through my head that maybe I need another muse.  Hey ho, instead of doing something as controversial as that… I decided to take a pearl of wisdom from Louise Balaam and USE MORE PAINT.  In fact not only did I think about Louise's words, I also thought about Julie Jackson and her playfulness with the materiality of paint, Alex Fowler and his blocks of just the right colour as I began and sustained this painting today.

I would still be painting but it was so dark without articfical light at three that I had to abandon it.  Not only is there a very dark shadow on the white vase, I can't see the colours I'm mixing.  annoyingly, I'm not sure when I will be able to return to this.  In London tomorrow, at a Colchester Art Society Lunch Saturday and then the inevitable massive clean-up that precedes a visit from  friends coming all the way from America.