waves
What a great weekend – it was all about the water. Yesterday I floated for three hours in a friend’s pool while we talked – so unbelievably relaxing. Today I breathed salt air and listened to the sound of the surf, and this evening I’m working on this piece with colours from the waves.
sarah
As usual I find myself astonished at what the clock says. It’s so easy to work all night in the quiet, there is no sign that time is passing.
dawn

I started this piece with a chalk sketch of a lovely 10-year-old I know. She has a beautiful wavy blond mane and a lovely singing voice, neither of which shows up here. I love her eyebrows, their angle gives her a vulnerable look.
Sometimes when I sit down to compose a new picture I can’t figure out how to start, the visual equivalent of writer’s block, I suppose. Suddenly I can’t remember how, as if I’d never done it before, and I swear it happens every third time I sit down to sketch out something new – absolutely ridiculous.
After struggling for a couple hours somehow I finally tap into it, then spend the rest of the night sketching out new pieces. Until when I should be getting up the next morning.
Luckily, there’s the work of creating the final versions before I do it all again.
broken

This window is in a beautiful building in the village my mom lives in, it was abandoned 19 years ago.
In my art I like to use images from my life and the places I’ve explored. Damaged old buildings evoke so many emotions, and questions.
This piece is not finished but I haven’t figured out where to go with it next.
Galina

I’m never sure whether I should write on bad days, but I’m thinking that until I get enough distance to make it sounds funny it’s probably best not to, eh?
It was nothing horrible, I’m just a delicate flower when it comes to a few certain things. Well, ok, I’m a delicate flower that lifts heavy weights and skilfully wields a pick-axe, but other than that…
stairway

I have to do some writing about my work and I’m dreading it. I don’t feel very articulate about what I do, and I don’t have a clear idea of what people want to know about me or my art. I did brainstorm a list of stuff about the work I’m currently doing, maybe I need a ghost-writer to shape it. I wonder if people still hire ghost-writers, it seems such an old-fashioned term.
I’m not a writer at heart (I used to say I avoid writing the way I avoid cutting myself with knives, that is, sometimes it happens despite my best efforts), so it has surprised me how much I enjoy publishing a blog, but my posts do tend to be pretty brief.
inconnu

Work in progress. The texture will be softer, the various edges will be worked, and the gilt enhanced.
There is a thunderstorm overhead, a very dramatic background to work to.

