Just like London Buses

I've been stuck recently: painting things I'm not happy with, but continuing to paint even though what is on canvas is crap. The drawings have been ok, but what a load of bollocks I've painted. It all started with the cold weather and the desire to do the flower paintings. After that it got too cold to be in the studio at all and all I could do was draw. The last week or so I have been back in the atelier - not for long, am leaving soon - desperately looking for a smaller cheaper space - and it hasn't come together. Until today. I am now working on several paintings at once - painting anew, reworking things I started, and doing a couple of small flower paintings to add to the dozen I already have - to sell at the Marché de la Création  here in  Les Matelles in May. See if I do better than last year. When I sold nothing and the screen blew over smashing a couple of frames. A net loss of about 50€. Anyway, the tits are all going, going... and I am happy painting abstracts using acrylics, oils, spray and anything else I can get my hand on. As usual I am painting and scraping. Today I remembered something: when I was at school about a million years ago in the 6th form, my old art teacher, Terry Marshall (a great teacher it must be said) looked at a painting I was doing, and suggested we try something: he poured place paint all over it and then started scraping it off. It didn't work and looked a complete and utter mess. My painting was ruined! I think what I'm doing now is working a bit better. Thinking about it, trying to scrape poster paint off cartridge paper was a bit silly.

New Rose

This one is I think finished. I've called it  "New Rose" after my favourite Damned song. There is another which MAY be finished - I'll have to check tomorrow, another which I need to do more work on, and I have painted over the monster graffiti picture I did a couple of weeks ago and have a lot of work to do on that. You know a painting needs painting over when its presence in the studio is really annoying you.