Layers and layers of things

varnish, hammer, getting the wee ones ready

I am now officially older than I was last week when I wrote and I am glad for that. However my birthday has sort of lingered into a birth week and has dominated the scene. I had a gathering the day before with friends at the pub, enjoyed the day of and then especially the day after. I met up with two lovely friends later in the week as well. However, I still made it into the studio a few times in the regardless. I just realized that when I started this studio blog I was 35 and now here I am at 44. Holy hell. Okay, enough of that wonderment, back to work!

Waiting to be varnished

In studio news, I varnished all my finished small works as well signed, titled, dated and put hanging fixtures on the back of them. I packed one up to post to Glasgow and I wrapped one up for its new home in Edinburgh. I worked on two 30x30" canvases paintings and played with the idea of doing monotypes on paper from some layers of my painting process. I may just do this for my own amusement or for homemade wrapping paper or I may explore it further. I am not sure yet. I do like pulling the paper off and seeing the printed image. 

Print on paper. The shift to the new shapes.

I am enjoying what I am painting currently. There is a bit of a shift happening in my latest paintings and perhaps a getting away from the oblong charcoaled shapes and more of a painted motif of slightly squared shapes floating and locking together. I have a vague idea about receptors in our brains. It's always something unseen on the interior. Anyway, I am interested to see where this is heading. 

Small works glisten like jewels after their varnish

Shimmering, waiting for their new homes

I wish I had a larger painting wall. I would like to roll canvas out, staple it and paint quite large. I would like to work on something much larger than myself that would be more physical in nature and more of a longer term project. This has just come to mind as I type so it will be interesting to see if anything comes of it. Perhaps now that I have written it down it will either come to fruition or be pondered further.

I feel like painting on layers and layers of things, fabric is on my mind right now. I don't do half of the projects I think of and I have no idea why I don't. I want to work with wide brushes, I would like the oblong circles and squares to be as big as me. I want to create a wall sized place to enter and get lost in. Perhaps after I hit publish on this I will go see what a big roll of canvas costs... 

Until next week you know what to do... keep fighting!