Houses on the way the Joaquina beach; December Santa Catarina Road trip

Houses on the way the Joaquina beach, oil on card, 14.1 / 10.4 cm  SOLD

Painted some weeks ago: I don't know why, but I didn't feel great about it at the time, partly because I had some problems getting a decent photo.

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I'm gearing myself up for a great December Santa Catarina road trip- from Florianopolis to the west and back. A week spend driving (very slowly as I dont like driving for much more than 200 miles a day), stopping here and there for painting and to streach my legs. Then all the way back.

I think to drive to Sao Miguel do Oeste via Lages, Curitibanos, Concordia  and Chapecó, and to return through São Lourenço, Caçador, Santa Cecilia, Rio do Sul and Timbo. But none of this is set in stone.

Two Brazilians walk along the highway, a dog forages

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Two Brazilians walk along the highway: a dog forages, oil on card, 12.5 / 14.5 cm  SOLD

A rather Nordic- specifically Norwegian- style: the dog came in part homage to Frédéric Glorieux, a French painter with an affection for animals.

Today was heavy and close, refusing to rain: you feel tired and hopeless on such days, wishing the air would clear. I watched an excellent film called "The Road".

I must sort some kind of plan for Christmas.It will be dismal to rot here. Perhaps I can drive somewhere?

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Timber yards off SC 401

Timber yards off SC 401, oil on card, 9.5 / 11 cm unavailable

A small painting: I love the intimacy and intensity that you can get when working small.

I like the play that comes when between painting great themes on a small scale: a sort of psychological game linked to miniaturisation, where the viewer has to "peer in".

Nocturne: night walkers' song

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Night-walkers' Song

 oil on card, oil on card, 11.2 / 14 cm - unavailable

The unpurged images of day recede;
The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night walkers' song
After great cathedral gong;
A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains
All that man is,
All mere complexities,
The fury and the mire of human veins.

From Byzantium by William Butler Yeats 

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Portait of a Russian Woman; free pictures

Portait of a Russian Woman, oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm

One of six portraits that were painted in the same corner of a flat in Maida Vale, London, about ten years ago. At the time, my notion was to create a huge series (very Perec-ian, perhaps), featuring many different sitters: life, however, got in the way.

At the time I was into portraiture, having had the notion of making a career of it. But I discovered that I lacked dependable accuracy in drawing likenesses. I was especially poor at depicting women, partly because my painting style was so angular that they appeared, literally, hatchet-faced.

I am sending this one to France, along with a nbumber of other paintings. It's great to find homes for pictures which have been sitting in storage: paintings should be seen and enjoyed.

Ergo, should readers see things they like here or on Flickr- particularly larger things, and want them, please let me know and I will send them to you if you pay the postage, packing, and handling costs.

Builders Yards near the turn-off to Santa Antonio

Builders Yards near the turn-off to Santa Antonio, oil on card, 13.5 x 11.5 cm

Painted from the car- a beautifully sunny day, almost too hot for comfort.

I also drove around Ratones, an interesting, quiet area which looks ideal for painting- the road winds and undulating, there are few tourists, horses graze.

São Paulo

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Well, I spent most of last week visiting galleries in São Paolo, hoping to find someone to help show my work. Perhaps I got a lead, but I am not optomistic. I am not sure why it is so difficult here: my pictures are selling and are accessable. Perhaps it is simply that there isn't much of a market here, and this makes dealers nervous.

São Paolo is a loathesome place: a brutalised environment with no end of beggers and homeless people. It is highly polluted and I became ill there almost immediately.

However, there is a nice collection of paintings in the USP Muesum of Contemporary Art, itself located in a fine park. I liked seeing the calm Morandis and wonderful Pancetti.