Hummingbirds

A bit of technical trivia about The Secret is in order: last time I wrote I was trying to make the oranges look more like round fruit and less like orange circles. I was under the delusion that covering them with thousands of little dots would do the trick, and with the deadline with the Watt Space show looming, I decided to try and talk some friends into what I billed as some kind of fun afternoon ‘spotting oranges.’ (Like many painters I occasionally exploit the ignorance of the general public concerning the less glamourous aspects of our craft. I remember talking various young men into posing for me nude, for free, with breezy explanations like ‘it’s for art’ ‘I’m a professional’ etc: though obviously this was a long time ago.) The ever reliable KS turned up, spotted a few oranges, decided it was harder than it looked, and suggested that we go for coffee instead. I’ve decided that if I’m ever in a position to hire an assistant it should be someone profoundly dull, technically impeccable, who thrives on water, self denial and hard tack.

The other thing I was trying to do with The Secret was fix up some dodgy bits of drawing vis a vis the dog’s front legs and the boy’s profile. The boy’s profile looked like one of those Picassos with the eyes pointing one way and the nose and mouth another, but veiled by the oil painting equivalent of an airbrushing effect. The problem was caused by selecting a three/quarters, slightly turned angle to the face, and then not being consistent with the angles of eyes, nose and mouth. In the end I repainted it as a straight profile and it worked much better, though it did cause a kind of strange pictorial dynamic in that most of the figures on the left hand side of the canvas are in profile, and most of the ones on the right hand side are looking straight at the viewer.