Tunisia, London, Edinburgh

Well, the bags are packed and I'm off painting for a month. Maybe there will be a little show in London.

I'm glad to get away from internet-land, with its strange fictions, for a while, so I'll probably just check my emails occasionally.

In March, assuming the trip is successful, I'll post the paintings I've done: which is likely to be an odd and contrasting crop. I felt that the work from the recent Santa Catarina journey suffered from "sameyness" the natural landscapes too alike to provide a varied crop- or my eye and skills to slight to emphasise sufficiently the differences between scenes.

Church at São Pedro de Alcántara

Church at São Pedro de Alcántara, oil on card, 12 / 13.7 cm

It's difficult to know quite what to make of this church, which is painted a bright bubble-gum pink. It's in an old German colonial city- not that they let you forget that for one instant. The town in very prettily located and is orderly and pleasant.

Yard of a builders' supply merchant, two workmen

Yard of a builders' supply merchant, two workmen, oil on card, 12 / 8.9 cm

One of the yards on the way to Ingleses. The workmen wear flip flops even when lifting heavy materials.

Landscape on the way to Lagoa; convention in art; postcards; painting in a show in Edinburgh

Landscape on the way to Lagoa, oil on card, 9 / 13cm

One of those, somewhat conventionalised, paintings that I enjoy painting from time to time.

But "conventional" is not a bad thing: art must follow some conventions or other, or it'll fail to communicate. A picture cannot be wholly original: playing with conventions, then, is what matters. But can conventional be too conventional? At what point does a convention become bankrupt, lifeless?

Perhaps there is no  visual form more conservative than the tourist postcard: this site is very enjoyable: http://rotographproject.blogspot.com/ Is it that very conservatism that makes the so beguiling? The way a series of visual conventions are imposed on a scenes wherever they are? Martin Parr pursues this in his wonderful Boring Postcards books.

If part of the pleasure of being an artist is in the escape from self and life's innumerable petty or major woes (a pleasure which it shares with cooking, dog-walking, crossword puzzles and innumerable other passtimes) then submitting to specific visual conventions holds a distinct appeal.

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Happily a little painting of mine, Small Pines has been accepted by the 2012 Visual Arts Scotland Annual Exhibition, in Edinburgh.

House being built, stray dog

House being built, stray dog, oil on card, 14.5 / 11 cm

A sort of kitchen sink realism here. There's a British school of painting which is very much about concentrated looking, and includes people as various as Bratby, Freud and Millais. Usually the subject matter of such pictures is banal and what matters is the intensity of scrutiny: it's anti-picturesque.

I must admit, that I don't actually much like this school, despite having entered the mindset myself here.

Ratones

Ratones, oil on card, 9.2 / 12.2 cm

Very hot.

The Marina

The Marina, Florianópolis, oil on card, 13 / 12.5 cm

I'm not doing much work these days: I'll be working very hard in Tunisia and London so I thought it wise to take a breather.