28 07 2022

 Gesso'd - first coat - 15 canvases, 3 50x50, 12 46 x 38 ( size a deviation but they were on promo) Much cooler day.... life in studio possible.

Plodding on with this. Gesso wont be fit to paint over for ages, so might as well -

27 02 2022

 Haven't uploaded photos of new stuff yet and maybe it aint worth it.... but its cooler, possible to function, I remember why Im a painter -

26 07 2022

 Much cooler, possible to work - very nearly finished next river painting and tomorrow have a lift to an arts store to buy some canvases. Amazing how these iridescent paints change. One moment a picture can look like a triumph, another a muddy mess. Sigh. Time to learn restraint, bah.

22 07 2022

 Fighting Orioles, finished. I like it - apart from the struggle, it works for me.

Battling on with the kingfisher painting which is having to dry a bit before I can move it on. 

20 07 2022

 A tolerable day with soft breezes; have been working in the studio and life seems a lot better. Though the work leaves a lot to be desired. Here are the Fighting Orioles;

Might be finished. 

19 07 2022

 Too hot; like the rest of Europe. Not lacking ideas and energy seems to be returning with the coolness. 

15 07 2022

 In a fit of hubris decided I'd tackle my website (vanillabeer.gallery) 

--I'm in bed with whatever ails me and somewhat bored (when not sound asleep) 

Having got to the hosting site and sorted passwords, I'm totally and massively and 100% baffled. 

Gracie looks after the site and hats off to her, she has a brain the size of a planet. 

Accordingly, anything I need to add to the gallery site will be put here in the blog; so, what I had hoped to put on the site but will not be, no chance,  is that the Fa exhibition has been extended to the end of the August and continues to sell. Some sold work has been taken away, some gaps filled with previously unshown paintings, some reserved till the end of the expo.

It's extremely cheering to me, lying here hurting, that people want my work. Thanks all! Cafe de Fa, Christian Hadengue, Nightingale and those that have bought.

 http://christianhadengue.blogspot.fr/ 

and search cafe de Fa - plus if you want to buy the catalogue its on Amazon: Saints in Paint by Vanilla Beer.

That's me done. Back to sleep now. I dream of painting, does that count as work? Last dream was painting curlicues on a chair, a painting of the chair that was curlicued... even as I dreamed I was painting it it seemed meretricious 

13 07 2022

 Too hot - paint behaving badly. Me too. Decided to accept the existence of demons as an easier option than dualism; so, being under attack by a demon means the 'l' of me-ness isn't being damaged by 'my' body but by something invisible with big teeth, hence restoring 'me' to wholeness. Nonetheless, painkiller territory. Perhaps I should knock them back with holy water, sigh.

Might be more capable this afternoon.

12 07 2022

Watercolours from yesterday morning - it was 30 degrees when I set out and 38 when I came back (I pass the town information panel on my route) Under the trees by the river was most pleasant though - except of course for the biting insects; one copes. What did for me were the stings which caused me to cry out loud in both shock and pain. Think wasps, who took against me. 
 

Lathered with camomile. 

Studio work unpleasantly hot but Bob dug out an old cold air blower which makes it possible to paint. Not well, but one lives in hope.

11 07 2022

 Started another river painting based on drawings... troubled that my critical faculties are AWOL. Mark-making is such a pleasure and the results are full of uncritical joy. Soon put a stop to that :)

Asthma keeping me awake, have to get new meds I guess though when this hot stretch ends (one week? Two?) it may pass. Gasp gasp.  Going to risk a stretch by the river now, need new drawings.

07 07 2022

 Ticking along... 

several things happened since I stopped painting. Many of my tubes are dried and unusable. My palette is to heavy for me to hold. Some brushes are rigid. Its clear that a studio is an organic thing that goes and changes daily if getting attention - it dies if not.

06 07 2022 b

 As a girl, like all kids probably, I thought the universe was addressing me. So when a colour was not available Id improvise, regarding this as divinely ordained. (The smell of poster paint...) Useful training; but in the fullness, I took some control.

Nowadays it seems its time to return to the flow. Went to the store to get some paintings to overpaint and stopped off at Ians - he was not in - was hoping he'd give me a hand - but went anyway,  and thrusting and turning the key in the lock realised I'd brought the wrong one. Could have been a catastrophe but managed to get it out. 

Went for coffee and back home Im going to pay more attention to the info thats available. Paint on the square canvases available, for one thing.

Been trying to exercise, since I must do something realistic about my health, and today got up to the 13th exercise of Luc Tung Kuen, as advised by Allenna (7 years my senior but very fit) Many more to go, but little by little I guess. 

06 07 2022

 Quite liked this drawing from Couiza featuring  the river Saltz - would have done more to it but used an iffy varnish to make some changes (not checking that it was for watercolours - its for oil) and don't think the paper will support more work. Not worth transferring to canvas. 

Two other drawings of the Aude I would like to transfer to canvas but they'll have to be landscape sized, can't change the shape to fit the square sizes I've been using. Given that I'm unlikely to be in an art store in the near future, will trot off to the store and find stuff to overpaint.

Later.

02 07 2022

 Not as bad as the last sortie but nothing to write home about - except it is thrilling to spend time by the river.  Fighting golden orioles, kingfisher, otters - 

01 07 2022

 went en plein air in the great heat - duh - and though I could envisage a result I couldn't achieve it. Not merely discomfort and inability; a sense of lack of connection, of drive, of urgency. 

Going out again this morning. Going to flog this horse proper.