blind - not today

 
Yesterday I was privileged to have a surgeon save my sight.  I have glaucoma in both eyes. It is hereditary.  My left eye is robust and responds well to drops.  My right eye is weaker.  Nearly three years ago I had a channel put into it to relieve the pressure - this slowly filled up - but now, thanks to the Manchester Eye Hospital staff it is cleared and the pressure is down - lots of droplets to put in - but this means I can go on painting for fun rather than in desperation resulting from loss of light.  I mention this, to alert anyone who needs to have glasses, to be sure to have a check for glaucoma - the earlier it is diagnosed, the better the outcome.  Cheers!

painting greens

I suppose it is becuase we have more receptors in our eyes for the colour green than any other colour that it is such a difficult colour to use.  The other day, becuase of the plants in the window were bouncing light into the room, I thought it would be interesting to capture the moment in paint - silly me - the colours got muddy.  I think it is not only the number of receptors (if that is the right word) but the tricks the brain does to generalise the subject of interest that muddles the issue,  I find that if the subject has a strong shape or strong colour then similar shapes and colours tend to becomes emphasised in the parts of the visual field that I am not concentrating on.    Have recently been in touch with the dep of psychology here in Manchester regarding my interest in the problems that arise when we try to represent what we think we see on to canvas. This all comes from the time my uncle, a professional painter and illustrator told me to 'paint what you see'  - I have been trying to follow his advice off and on ever since.  Norman Sutcliffe, his name.  A man of kindness and wit. 

nighthawks what happens next

I enjoy thinking about what comes next when looking at pictures in art galleries.  Fairly recently at an exhibition of Edward Hopper's work his 'Nighthawks' seemed to ask, and then what? My rough painting is an answer that asks more questions: the cafe is seen in reverse through a car mirror.  Is the driver one of the characters in the painting, or is it by someone else? Is the loan character one of the customers, and are the couple in the distance the man and woman in the painting? Is the proprietor putting on his coat to go back to an empty home? All this in homage.

New Year 2012 acting and painting

I havent forgotten - just going on with Hamlet - so much reading and checking. Just a faint hope to clarify one or two things that have bothered me over the years. 

The light in winter is awful, but there is always a panting sitting waiting for me to add a colour/shape.  I get fun out of treating a well known painting as thought it was the first of several in a sequance - I have one on the go but havent yet photographed it -  In the mean time here is one of my bowl pictures to add to the jolity of nations

I am trying to forget we are into a New Year - they come round too fast now ...

Thanks for the comments and congratulations to the actor of Jermyn street!  My partner's mum was Terrence Rattigan's cousin - small world. 

Acting is a strange craft - I suspect a lot of it is to do with being clever at doing as little as possible - 'the less I do the better my performance', said Louis Juvet - and then there is always the hypnotic effect of the golden section :8:13//1.62  approx..that confirs greatness even if there is little talent to go with it.  Helen of Troy was cursed with it I reckon. For relaxation am re reading Vanity Fair, a novel that goes at a gentle amble- I bet its heroin Becky Sharp had it too - what a little minx!

Deep Blue Sea

We braved the awful noise and flashing lights of the adverts at Manchester's Corner House Cinema to see The Deep Blue Sea, a film based on the play of the same name by Terrene Rattigan.  A beautifully acted film with time given to the performers to think and feel their way through the intricacies of a marriage gone wrong.  When not actively engaged in dialogue we thought that holding on to 'well posed images' was a little too long.  The tongue in cheek claim made by Terrence that there were only three playwrights - Shakespeare, Chekhov and himself began to smack of the truth.  I think the bits not in the original script were unnecessary - especially the one in the underground with the referances to Anna Korenina and the wife in Brief Encounter dragged in.   To my mind the Barber concerto is too powerfully to be quiet right for the piece, but this is a quibble – it certainly has the loneliness.  We both felt that the last shots of opening the window to a bright future, and the world of others toddling along as per usual must have been done for the sentimental American audiences - in the original, the wife folds up the scarf of her departed lover - much more telling - and for those who like references, think ‘the mobbled queen’, in Hamlet!  My fussy carping apart Do see it if you can.  

I am still trying to understand Hamlet.  Every time I get an idea, I am led on to another. It grows like Hampton Court maze on nitrogen

Shall we have a quiet winter season, think you? I do hope so....