15th May 2012. A photo taken today on the beach followed by one of today’s drawings and the painting I’ve been working on from the drawings.
14th May 2012. This is something I wrote for a publication in 2007. The last paragraph still seems very relevant in regard to the deliberations I have been having over the ‘figure and sea’ paintings
SIMON CARTER October 2007
Get Constable, Town Hall Gallery, Ipswich
One of my most vivid experiences of a Constable painting, in fact of any painting, was after seeing the exhibition ‘American Sublime’ at Tate Britain in 2002.
14th May 2012. Looking out over the gardens this evening with a rainstorm approaching.
9th May 2012. This looks more like something now! And a photo of the sea this afternoon; the problem with depicting the sea…there is nothing much there, but then there is everything there as well.
8th May 2012. I’m thinking that I might title this one ‘Fishing”
4th May 2012. The studio this morning. Yesterday I was making drawings of two people fishing from the beach; the painting on the right has been adjusted to include one of them. I have put the figure back in the pink painting on the left after discussing the current work with Stephen Walton earlier this week.
3rd May 2012. More heavy over-night rain and the garden is laying with water again this morning.
1st May 2012. I intend to leave the painting for a while now. I have been making more drawings and will have another look at the painting after that.
23rd April 2012. (JMW Turner’s birthday) After painting out the figure last week I tried putting it back in today but eventually painted it out again. I have a vague notion of where the painting might go but it will hopefully begin to dictate its own progress soon. In the meantime I have been making more drawings and a watercolour after Turner.
20th April 2012. I begun to make a few adjustments to the pink and yellow painting last posted on 8th February 2012. This begun with dissatisfaction with the figure, and moved onto painting a small piece on paper and then to painting over the figure on the canvas. At this point the whole painting seemed ready for a major rethink and, in a state of trying to hold things together and of desperation, I began drawing and painting. I will post photos as the painting develops…
