Blackpaint 88

When is a picture finished (2)

I stick it on the wall in the front room, and leave it for a few days to decide.  BUT – this doesn’t work really, because you get familiar with it and it acquires a sort of integrity in your eyes.  Same as repetition – if you repeat an image in several paintings it can acquire status, like those comedy programmes on TV, where a catchphrase is repeated week after week.  You get input too – “I don’t think it’s quite finished yet”, or “I really like this bit” – invariably the bit you were just going to paint over.  SO – I don’t have the answer to this either.  There are no answers, I suppose.

Anyway –

It was like this:

Then it was like this:

But now, it’s like this:

I don’t think it’s finished yet.

Giotto

I’ve been looking at his stuff which I love, but I can’t get away from the cartoon (in the modern sense) aspect of it: the little square figures – although not in the picture below-  their rudimentary expressions of grief or surprise, the sawn-off angels doing yoga positions in the sky, all in those rich, deep colours.

Listening to No More Doggin’, the John Lee Hooker version on Riverside, distinguished by being one of the few songs where he knowingly rhymes the ends of lines.

“Honey, no more doggin’, foolin’ round with you (*2)

I’m gonna let you go baby, that’s what I’m gonna do”.

Blackpaint

16.03.10

Tags: Abstract painting, Giotto, John Lee Hooker