Kim's Game, finished picture

A few changes, including the orientation of the picture to reach the final version
(the first version is at the bottom, the latest at the top).

For mysterious reasons that govern these things this picture never "took off", for me, the process leading nowhere surprising, and always polite.

Kim's Game - Work in Progress

A few changes were made to the painting, removing fussier details, making the dhapes simpler, often more egg-like. See previous version - http://tadeuszderegowski.blogspot.com/2009/08/work-in-progress.html

Kim's Game is played at children's parties. A series of objects are displayed to the children on a tray for a limited time period and they have to record what these objects were. The winner is he who recalls the objects most accurately.

According to Wikipedia, "The name is derived from Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim, in which the hero, Kim, plays the game during his training as a spy."

I played the game at Malcolm Smith's birthday party in 1975 or 1976. I remember the objects being brought to us on a tray, then being removied exactly two minutes later, after which we each wrote down the names of the objects we could remember on pieces of paper.

I remember how poorly I recalled the objects despite forcing my concentration. I had a feeling of frustration when writing down the names of the objects, fearing that the process of writing them down was so laborious that in the time it took the other objects would fade from my memory.

My host's mother returned the tray to us for comparasion with the lists- I do not recall who won- it was not me! How mysterious it was that I had simply forgotten some objects so prominent they were: they had indeed disappeared from my consciousness, as if their presence had been a mirage. But they had surely been there as much as those whose names I had recorded.

Work in progress

Some pictures are like pzzles, and after I begin them I wonder where they are going to go.

These are my thoughts about this one-

1. The picture should dry before being worked on mor because otherwise I'll just muddy the surface
2. The shapes should be more abstract. They shouldn't immediately suggest the possibility that they represent things.
3. I like the more oval shapes to the upper righthand side.
4. I like the pink shape with grey markings.
5. I would like to write a word in the painting - perhaps the title?- but I am not yet sure what.

We have nothing to fear - painting

The pinkish tone of this picture makes me thing of toothpaste. Is that a bad thing?

My idea is to produce unfussy paintings, paintings that have a freshness and lightness about them.

Arrangement and comparasion

Art here which is about arrrangement and the comparasion of forms across a flat plane. It's called "Anglo-Saxon attitudes".

It was difficult to photograph this, and I apologise for the quality. It is a painting that readily refects diffrences in light, and appears different wherever you place it.

It wasn't hard to paint, and his makes me think how funny it is how easy it is to paint sometimes. The work just flows, and you produce good stuff. The things that are hard work usually aren't much good, in my experience. But I grew up in Scotland where hard work is a value in itself and it's hard to shake the mindset that tells you that an easy thing can't have more value than a difficult one.

The picture is 92 x 71 cm, oil on canvas. I want to work larger.

Fast painting

I used to believe that the more slowly and deliberately a thing was done- specifically a work of art- the better. I thought that because I saw slowness as proof of deliberation, thoughtfulness, and care.

These concerns were fundamentally moral. They don't necessarily need to be present in the aesthetic sphere- a work of art can equally well be spontaneous, thoughtless and careless. It just depends on your terms.

There's no proving that one set of values is better than the other because in the end the artwork is just a thing: it has no moral life and - though part of me rages against this- it doesn't really matter very much in the scheme of things anyway.

Personally, I've always been a much better fast artist than a slow one. If the pace is too slow I get bored- I don't concentrate more. On the contrary, if I have too much time to make corrections then I over-edit. I fuss, changing things that don't need changing, blunting my original message with compromise.

This is partly why monotype is such an appealing medium for me, it's "time-limited", you have to get the image right in an hour or two or the ink dries. But I have attempted to discover the same midset in painting, here.

The Garden City (nocturne)

Here is the complete print (86 x 60 cm).

Where to?

I don't know what to do next. The roundels series was well recieved. I know I have to work in a completely different way for the next series of works. Beyond that, however, what exactly to do, or indeed, what precisely to make work about is uncertain to me.

I'd like it to be something connected to the plates of drawings found illustrating natural histories, however.

Here is another detail from the Rooundels Series. The entire set can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28509471@N05/

I'm coming to an end of this series.

I could continue, but I think that would result in repetition, and the work becoming more and more decorative and mechanical, like wallpaper.

Some confident works

Here are some of the better ones- there have been some very weak prints too. Howver, I think the weak ones are somehow "necessary". Without them it wouldn't be possible to make the good ones.

Roundels

The first batch of new work is finally coming through. There's a fair Delaunay influence, also some pop art ideas. I want it to develop into something lighter than this.

Nerves- covers for the series

Nerves 5