Nocturne: Curitiba

*

Nocturne: Curitiba, oil on card, 12.5 x 11.5 cm unavailable

This was painted back in 2011 on a trip to Curitiba, but not put online. It seems strong to me: very Munchian, but that's hardly a criticism.

*

Moçambique, woodland and fields

*

 Praia Moçambique, woodland, oil on card, 12.5 x 12.5 cm   - available

Praia Moçambique, fields, oil on card, 12.5 x 14 cm  available

Two pochades painted on a productive day in the woods at Praia Moçambique.

It's the first time I've managed to do good work of the woods at Moçambique. The woods have a restful quality and I love to work in them. But after previous sessions I'd had to destroy what I'd painted. I'd been under under the spell of other painters and couldn't locate my own emotional responses, I 'd seen Munchs and Klimts everywhere, and had become inarticulate, and the work was stale.

This time I seemed not to give too much of a damn. I felt free: the pictures came.

*

Melancholy- Guarrulhos airport

*

Melancholy- Guarrulhos airport, oil on card, 12.5 x 10.5 cm - available

All journeys from Brasil begin and end at Guarrulhos airport, a miserable place.

I am thinking that perhaps flying out of Brasil via Buenos Aires in future might be better.

Stage three, two Summer paintings.

There is something heavy about "A House among woods", caused by the starkness of tonal difference between sunlit and shaded areas. I shall have to attempt to relieve this with dabbed brushstrokes of leaves. The composition is also heavy, however: the landscape dense beneath the sky.

Also, the canvas is not lightly accepting paint. I don't know why, I think it needs to dry more. I might leave it for a fortnight.

"Trees at the end of a Road" is happier, perhaps becase I invested less in making it, the result is lighter, fresher. I like the art noveau rythms there.