Coins, and some small ceramic scarabs on a table

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Coins, and some small ceramic scarabs on a table

 oil on card, 14 x 13.5 cm unavailable

I don`t quote directly from, but I like very much the placing of objects on a board in certain games, such as solitaire. 

A slightly irregular laying out of objects is very pleasing. I am not sure why. There is a nice book of photos illustrating this pleasure: Things Organized Neatly: The Art of Arranging the Everyday by Austin Radcliffe.

Apropos Boice, and working methods. I continue within the constraint of an hour but reduce the number of pieces  being worked on to eight. This is less pressurised.

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One of the rooms in which I live

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A view into a bedroom showing a table and shelving,

oil on card, 13 x 17 cm -  -unavailable

I think an important aspect of Boice's approach is that one does not immediately act upon disappointment, which is so often -perhaps usually?- a corollary  to ones own creative efforts. One lets that disappointment sit and coagulate in the mind into a sort of resolution overnight.

An aspect of my approach is that it includes repetition. The idea is that one confronts monotony. The risk is that one creates it.

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Plants, a chair, a keyboard, wires, bowls and pots; Robert Boice and working processes

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Plants, a chair, a keyboard, wires, bowls and pots

 oil on card, 18.5 x 15.5 cm - unavailable

I am experimenting with very contained periods of work- exactla an hour. The idea here is that one will not tire for the next day, and that one will learn to work more efficiently, swiftly.

Boice and A Working Method

I am an efficient worker. I`ve almost never had creative block. But I was reading a review of Robert Boice`s Professors as Writers: A self-help Guide to Productive Writing, and thought it might be fun to experiment with some of his principles.

To summarise, he is rather sceptical of "inspiration" and believes that writing should be the product of daily sessions, which should neither overrun nor fall short of, their alloted time. 

 My time is exactly an hour and my process is as follows: I work on ten pictures,  one after the other in a rolling sequence. Thus, I work on the first for approximately two minutes before moving onto the second, and then the third and so on, until I reach number ten and then I return to number one.

This allows me time to view each picture afresh, and allows the paint time to settle. Also, it forces me to suspend judgement over pictures, so that I don't immediately jettison or revise works that might at first appear unsatisfactory.  This way my critical instincts are held in check for at least 18 minutes. 

At the end of the session I look over the pictures, and usually discard the one or two obvious failures. Then, over the next days, I look over them again, getting rid of more: usually I keep one,  sometimes I keep few. 

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