Today I will be resuming a painting I started in early 2025, following a few trips to Stamford, in Lincolnshire, where almost all adjacent and adjoining rooftops are at different angles and heights. A friend of mine, who lives in the town, had captured a photograph of a building, which I really admired for the many patterns and angles of details such as roof tiles, wall stones and bricks, and so I decided to paint from the photograph. From what I can remember, I lasted only a single, brief, painting session with that particular piece, and so there is a lot of ‘blank’ space on the canvas.
Before I resume, there are pencil markings from last time round still visible, and some dry oil paint already exists to ‘fill’ a wall space. As I am no longer working from the initial photograph, and more from my memory & the sort-of plan I had sketched onto the canvas already – I would really like to focus on the different marks and patterns that could become occupied space in the different shapes within the image in front of me.
My idea for the colours within the piece were originally based on my own preference – I really enjoy representing shadows with the colour purple, and light/ reflections with pale pinks (although I hadn’t begun in this way). This was something I feel I accomplished well in a previous self-portrait I worked on, in 2023/ 2024.
I am looking forward to resuming this piece more than I anticipated I would enjoy any of the pieces I have already completed for this project. I think this is largely down to my own preference of painting or drawing landscapes and buildings over people and animals.
The mental block between myself and feeling ready to paint is quite obviously frustrating today. I think I am more aware of the moments coming between myself and the actual painting because I’m hoping to enjoy this process a lot more than I have done so far. I think this stems not only from enjoying the subject of the painting more, but also from feeling I’m more ‘on top’ of things this week. In my personal life things feel to have settled a bit more over the weekend just passed, which in turn now means I feel able to spend time painting more effectively*.
*effectively, in this case meaning enjoying the process and outcome/s more than previously. I am interested to experiment painting in different environments or perhaps with a different set-up or list of preparations.
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