Cacupe, trees in a garden; painting success or failure

*

Near Cacupe, trees in a garden, oil on card, 30 x 25.5 cm   AVAILABLE

It's funny how some days the painting goes well and on others not, how unpredictable it is.

This one is the result of two visits. The first didn't quite get the ball into the net. This one has a range of textures and a confidence that the other lacked, with a varied textures and a wide range of yellows. I have destroyed the former. 

I destroy about a third of my work.

 For me failure nearly always has psychological roots. Some days I seem to work steadily and easily and everything just slots into place. And others are a struggle from first to last and I might even destroy the picture after. It is frustrating not to know how to guarantee that every session is a success.

 I try to console myself with the notion that even on the bad days I am learning something, storing up some knowledge for another day, but I'm not 100% convinced that if that is really the case. 

*

There is a Bonnardish feel about this one. I identify a lot with the intimist idea- art as a revealing of secrets. 

*

A view into a bedroom

*

A view into a bedroom, oil on card, 12 x 13.5 cm  - available

*

Courtyard, Trindade; kitsch

*

Courtyard, Trindade, oil on card, 14 x 17 cm -  -unavailable

A picture in a "Japanese" vernacular, via French Intimism. 

The courtyards visible from my flat have enormous potential as subjects: art as the revealing of secrets, the hidden made known. Art of this sort is the opposite of propaganda and kitsch, which deals in falsehoods. 

  Next time I will try to capture the lady responsible for the washing, though she only ever appears fleetingly to hang or remove her laundry.

*