November

'Monstera' Acrylic on canvas. 1.3m x .9m

'Monstera' Acrylic on canvas. 1.3m x .9m

Everything seems a bit heavy at the moment. Lots of family members have been given the warning that their time on earth is nearing completion and its bumming me out somewhat. Theo has been told that the triple heart bypass they did on him back in the 1980s left a bit to be desired and his heart is in a state of collapse. Bryan was told his liver has started to collapse and his diabetes is rampaging. He got a pass on beating bowel cancer though. Jack is in hospital for what the staff say is his final time. My heart bleeds for him and his gentle wife who is by his side every chance she can despite her own fragility. Mum is unwell but coping even with all of the illness about her. My own heart has joined the family of failing organs and the specialist has put me on another medication with the promise that if I dont rally they will look at a pacemaker in six months. I don’t think so!

The computer broke down again and this time I had had enough. I have a new tower from Megabuy. As always they delivered almost the next day and a great product. There are some interesting things about both that and the tech guy who fixes my machines now so I will write that as another entry later. I owe the tech guy, from Cornerstone Computing, many thanks but I will explain later.

Tw0 new works, both are paintings. They are untitled but for the purposes of identifying them here I will give them titles. The larger painting, “Monstera” is very much of a breakthrough for me at this point. The underlay was my usual intensely worked textural surface but the final picture is fluid and fast palette knife work. Vey spontaneous and enjoyable it was done almost as a dance step to Joe Cocker’s gravelly voice. I had been trying to turn this canvas into a deep greenish rainforest. At the same time an image of monstera had been trying to get out. The monstera just seemed to demand its place on this canvas. One day I was looking through a few paint tubes to see what colors were available still and the next I had a lump of chalk and was sketching out these leaves. They just grew into life from there.

Winter bamboo has a strange and complex background. Actually all bamboo has emotional gravitas for me.

Dad fought in Vietnam. He sent us many slides and photographs during his time over there and he had a complex way of appreciating his world. In one image a spray of bamboo might have beem bordering a temple and in another it might have been an army camp. One of his enduring memories was of a field of sharpened punji stakes among the swaying golden grass outside a village. Punji stakes are sharpened bamboo spikes planted diagonally against the direction of an expected enemy attack. In the case of this field the punji had been laid out by someone with a compulsive disorder. There were thousands of them all exactly in line and on the same diagonal. Beautiful!

Among the things I got from Dad before we lost him were a number of pieces of bamboo. He had seen something in the punji sticks and by cutting them short he had made drawing pens from them. I have a set of about half a dozen in different thicknesses.

And yet bamboo signifies the natural peace of Oriental places. It is part of the deep experience of Japanese gardens. It symbolises tenacious vigor as well. All that in an image that makes me feel peace. There will be other bamboo images. The simplicity of the drawing and the opportunity to extend an element of Zen into it is compelling for me. I find this image beautiful.

Winter Bamboo. .6m x .3m Acrylic mediums on canvas

Winter Bamboo. .6m x .3m Acrylic mediums on canvas

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