Two pictures - road-building; Chile

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Tarmac, oil on card, 12 / 14cm - unavailable

Tarmac, abandoned oil on card, 12 / 14cm - available

Part of the series tracing a new suburban development in Lagoa.

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I fly to Chile at the end of May: Santiago and Valparaiso. It is considerably cheaper to fly to Chile than to the North-East of Brasil, about half the price. I don't understand the air fares in Brasil at all: I suspect some sort of cartel.

Road-building 2, Lagoa; travel painting: my secret shame

Road-building, oil on card, 15 / 12 cm - discarded

A particularly shimmering day, God-made with Velázquez, perhaps.

This is the second of an open and occasional series tracing the building of this new suburban development being constructed on some heathland, which I had previously painted.

This time I am again on the rise, but about two hundred metres further over from the road.

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My secret shame as a painter of landscapes and whose work is increasingly dependent on travel, is that I dislike travel itself.

I don't like the actual processes of travel, apart from trains or the buying of tickets and planning as I find I find this stressful. I have generalised worries that something is going to go wrong. I don't like having to speak foreign languages and I feel nervous in new places. I am suspicious of all strangers, especially if they want to help me. I don't like hotels and hostels and I don't like strange food. I worry continually about being robbed or losing something. I resent paying huge sums for simple items and consumables. I don't like being alone for long periods and I don't like losing my routines.

In short, I am a pitiful traveller.

Quite what the solution to this is, I don't know, though I have found that the best thing is to imagine a worst case scenario ( robbed and gang raped in the mountains of Tunisia, reads the headline in the Daily Mail, perhaps), then judge the likelihood of this, then place all the other pettier worries on a sliding scale, to illustrate their triviality.

The benefits gained in terms of inspiration well exceed these caveats.

Heathland, Lagoa, 4pm

Heathland, Lagoa, 4pm, oil on card, 13.8 x 10 cm discarded

I sat here watching the sky. It's been a long time since I painted here and a lot of things have changed in my life, some of them painful but all ultimately for the better.

Trees on the heath - Homage to Nick Drake

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Trees on the heath- Homage to Nick Drake, Oil on card, 13.5 x 8.2 cm  - available

I was thinking about Nick Drake's song "Fruit Tree", while painting.

 

Maybe the fact of my being there on the little patch of heathland in Lagoa unconsciously reminded me of Drake who was photographed for his last album, "Pink Moon" on Hampstead Heath, London and who had a flat in Belsize Park, near the heath.

I won`t  go to the heath for a while: I feel that I've exhausted it. The seasons don't contrast sufficiently to make frequent visits to the same location creatively fruitful, unlike in the United Kingdom.

Some trees, Itacorubi; ideas for the days ahead

Some trees, Itacorubi, oil on card, 11 x 11.7 cm

Here are some of painting ideas for the days to come:

1. Barra de Lagoa, the bridge or the boats
2. Still life of boxes, cds and other bright objects
3. Estreito: more views of buildings there
4. Path in the woods (park, Corrego grande)
5. Some of the buildings in the centre of Florianopolis, especially the old bus station
6. Favela construction in Saco dos Limoes
7. The Hercilio Luz Bridge and the road bridge
8. The cds and books here piled up
9. A coat or a coloured shirt hanging up
10. The heath near Lagoa
11. A self portrait
12. The bed
13. The tyre shop, Itacorubi
14. Florianopolis seen from the continent
15 . Nocturne of the entrance to an apartment block
16. Nocturne depicting a white wall and a streetlamp near here.

I'd like it if the next bunch of paintings were brighter and used more primary or secondary colours, instead of the greys which dominated my palette over the last month.

But of course when one arrives at a place it's very often the case that the idea one had is less interesting than something that catches ones eye: I'll always discard the original idea. if that's the case.

I don't much like being watched when I'm working, so if a location turns out to be busy then I'll often go to a side street or more isolated place. This means that I tend to paint places like Estreito or the centre at the weekend when everything is shut.

And if it rain threatens, then I'll chose a covered area to work from.