Balcony/ Sacada, Florianopolis; daily painting

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Balcony/ Sacada, Florianopolis, oil on card, 10.6 x 13.4     -   available

Today's picture is a very Bonnard-ish.

They are supposedly constructing or planting a botanical gardens there, where my view depicts though, apart from a large sign, I have seen nothing to indicate any work taking place there over the last year. These things take forever here. This can be most de-spiriting.

Now I think of it, the theme of the garden is really central to Bonnard- the oasis or haven, and this theme finds its domestic internal analogy in his pictures of bathrooms and bathing.

I previously commented ironically on daily painting, as if there were something excessively worthy or laboured about the idea, but I find that I have myself begun to paint daily. Some people might think this takes discipline, but the opposite is true: in daily painting, painting becomes a sort of anchor, and the day feels incomplete or strange if I haven't worked on any pictures. Painting comes to assume some of the ritualistic qualities of church on Sunday- it solves the problem of what to do, thus making one impregnable.

I think now if I were living in the UK, I'd consider attending church on Sundays just for the amusement of it, though it would have to be a church where the sermons were extremely brief, as I find them irritating. Actually, I find most aspects of religion, apart from the songs and the architecture, annoy me so I am not sure whether I'd really manage to sustain the habit of churchgoing (even in the Anglican church which is famously- magnificently- open to all-comers; even those who are quite openly just there for the aesthetics).

Estreito, Miles Davis E.S.P.; grid plans I have loved; disorder

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Estreito- shops/ lojas, oil on card, 9.5 x 11.7 cm   - available

I drove across to the continent and worked in Estreito, a district with it's own atmosphere redolent of San Francisco because of the grid plan, and the way the roads undulate, sloping down towards the sea, but with the sense of decay, disorder and chaos that seems so characteristic of Brazil.

It isn't necessarily unpleasant: as I drove I listened to Miles Davis' E.S.P.: modal jazz seems analagous to the grid plan: a simple clear rythmic and harmonic plan underpinning individual solo expolations, and Davis' 1965 lp had a mood very appropriate to the hazy cool day: laid back, percussive.

The shops and street furniture are jammed together chaotically- using colour to compete for attention.

Flowers in a glass, Flickr

Flowers in a glass, oil on card, 10.1 x 10.4 cm  SOLD

The first of a number of little still lives: these have been rather popular, mainly, I think, simply because they contrast with the run of landscapes. If one posts almost daily on Flickr (as I do) then it's probably advisable to vary style and theme to maintain interest.

I've also found that the public takes a great deal more interest if, in some way, the personality of the artist is somehow accessable though the postings- with autobiographical snippets, or images of the artists' home and self.

This, however is not something I wish to to- I simply don't want such an intimate relationship with the public, as such relationships that I have seen seem strange and imbalanced to me, and it strikes me too that they are founded on a false notion of art as primarily an autobiographical tool.

The big green hill; travel sketching; USA trip

The big green hill, oil on card, 11 x 8.5 cm

A heavy day; my mood awful throughout.

Beautiful heathland in Lagoa, under threat of suburbanisation but still a pleasant place to escape- the smell of the damp grass very pleasant and larks and butterflies everywhere.

I thought of Leonard Cohen's words from, "True Love Leaves No Traces," as I worked:

As the mist leaves no scar

On the dark green hill

So my body leaves no traces

On you, and never will

Through windows in the dark

The children come, the children go

Like arrows with no targets,

Like shakles made of snow

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A couple of days ago I passed the morning reading through an exhibition catalogue of Edward Lear's watercolours, painted on his travels: I have the idea of doing much the same on my USA trip, which is still in it's embyro stages (any help/ advice gratefully accepted: I'm especially interested in linking up with other painters in the USA, and the possibility of showing work and ideally selling some to help pay for the trip).

What is delightful about Lear is that his work is so closely tied to his experience, and even if conpositionally the pictures are often using the jaded formats of Lorrain or Poussin, it's possible to access his personality through his handling of pencil and wash.

Sketchbook work is often so; I have previously mentioned Ardizzone here, I might also mention Zymunt Turkiewicz's "Montecassino" , a very immediate album of drawings illustrating the Polish fores assault on the german stronghold in Italy (pub. 1944) and the drawing produced by Mervyn Peake as an official War Artist.

Towards the cemetery, Itacorubi

Towards the cemetery, Itacorubi, Oil on card, approx 10 x 12 cm  - available

Very wet here. The computer has broken and our useless internet/phone provider seems incapable of offering even the most scant level of service- we have been without a telephone for most of the last three days. Thus I am sitting in an internet cafe trying to concentrate.

All this has served to show how dependent I am on the internet for both work and pleasure- television here is unwatchably moronic.

I am very happy with recent paintings, however.

View across the bay from João Paulo

View across the bay from João Paulo , oil on card, 8.6 x 6 cm

This picture is about the size of a credid card. To the left on the far shore can be see the Policia Federal.

View of Florianopolis from near the cemetery

View of Florianopolis from near the cemetery, oil on card, 12 x 10.6 cm

A somewhat messy picture: I wanted to go to the sea but it was impossible. I shall try to do some nocturnal painting from the car during the week.

I've never painted nocturnes though I've often wanted to. I don't know why painting at night from the car never occurred to me before.