22nd May 2004

 

Back onto the Flying Colours painting. I've done some necessary blanking out as it was getting too fussy. Now I'm not sure which way up it should be. I think it should be landscape; either the original, which is top left; or the bottom right. I think the latter as the space seems to work better.

17th May 2004

 

Just back from a weekend in Berlin where amongst other things I went to the Bauhaus Museum and a wonderful Chagall exhibition. Full of gems. Not so many of his big works but some glorious small oils and gouaches. It was really inspiring and also great to go to an exhibition where we weren't crammed in like sardines getting glimpses of paintings over people's shoulders which is what seems to happen in London now.

I came back deciding to go back to semi-figurative work. I have views of lemon trees from several of my windows and Iris who lives opposite has just painted her steps a beautiful blue.

I also felt, as I haven't been painting much, that it would help me to get back into the swing to do these less pressured smaller things on paper. The 'flying colours' picture looks at me from the corner of the room.

10th May 2004

 

Back to work in progress after a long gap. Below is a painting I started in February and I think I'm about to revisit. Completely abstract which creates it's own set of problems and excitements.


This looks a bit wrinkly because it's travelled - from Greece to England and back and also I'm trying working on unstretched canvas. I've always liked the flexibility of paper and in particular the chance it offers to change size easily either by cropping or pasting. Looking at this now I feel quite positive but it's over-complex so I think big brushes and white paint may appear. Something I find I can't do when I'm really involved in a painting and have fallen in love with little patches which may however not work in the picture as a whole. That's why leaving a piece to rest for a while can be so helpful.

I've had a few not life-threatening health problems - I recently found out that I have coeliac's disease and that I have the knees of someone in their sixties or seventies for no apparent reason. The former is great because although I can't have lovely Greek bread and spinach pies, I feel so much better now I'm on a gluten free diet. The latter is a pain, particularly here in Hydra where life is full of steps. If I find the person who has my knees I'll mug them and demand them back. In fact last night I had a dream that I was with my uncle who is 90 and still jogs and he kept rushing off leaving me trailing behind and lost.

But another reason that there has been a long gap is that, in the true spirit of dilettantism, I've found myself writing a novel. I had an idea for a radio play that just grew. It's set in contemporary Tyneside and Greece in the forties. So because I can write the Tyneside bits without much research, whilst the scent of lemon blossom wafts around, bags of mushmullas appear at my door and donkeys bray; in my head I'm crossing the blinking eye bridge or attending a meeting in Wallsend. At the same time I'm researching the Greek parts but it looks as though I'll end up writing them in England. I'm reading books on the period but also a wonderful book by Vangelis Calotychos called 'Modern Greece: A Cultural Poetics'. I'm both reading through it and dipping in and constantly finding bits that discuss or explain ideas that have been vaguely floating around in my head in an unformed way for ages. I think it's my ideal kind of book because it mixes academic work (some of which I struggle to understand but I think struggling to understand is a good thing as long as it doesn't swamp you) with a more accessible approach and refers to a lot of work that I've already read and thought about.

This is one of the comments from the cover that explains it better than I can.

'This is probably the best exploration of the culture of Modern Greece I have encountered in twenty years. Calotychos works with verve and skill in several fields. Although he professes to be a literary historian and critic, he clearly also has the analytic skills of an anthropologist working within a powerfully interdisciplinary cultural tradition. His theory is eclectic but unpretentious, his range is deep and wide, and his writing style attractively uncluttered'. Michael Herzfeld Harvard University.
10th November 2003

 
Not painting but definitely art.
 
Yesterday morning I walked to Vlichos which is the next village along the coast. Because of the earlier wild weather there was lots of new flotsam and jetsam and I found this ear! It has to be my best beach find ever. Perhaps there is a village in the Peloponnese where all the people have hearing problems because the Doctor has lost it. It now has pride of place above my baglamathaki to encourage me to learn to play better.
It was a beautiful day; sunny but windy and the sea was a deep, deep blue about 75% Prussian, 25% Ultramarine

And finally, the sunset from my window.
5th November 2003
This little thing is the reason for lack of work in progress (and general indolence of course.) I bought it on Saturday from Karolos Tsakirian. www.bouzouki.com.gr and have been trying to play it ever since. It is hand made but not custom made as my skill level would never justify such a fine instrument. It is so tiny (60cm long) that when I had it with me in Athens I was terrified that I would leave it somewhere. But it was a bit like having a baby or animal with me as so many people talked to me. I felt a complete fraud as I'm just about working out how to play a few tunes - slowly. But I suppose I could have hidden it under my coat - the reason they were originally so small. But it is incredibly powerful. Out of three that looked the same but sounded different I didn't choose the sweetest one.

I suppose this isn't about painting but as I'm painting 'about' music it is vaguely work in progress. Athens was wonderful at the weekend. I think it is at its best in good late Autumn weather and everyone seemed so happy.

There is a storm raging outside and I'm just about to go to a friend's house to eat 'fakes' which are Greek lentils and a real winter food. Three of us all coincidentally bought them yesterday as the weather turned.

The next entry will be painting!

 
1st November 2003
Happy month! as they say here.

Woke up to a beautiful day. This is the view from my front two windows. I have six windows in the living room each with a different beautiful view.

  

The big eucalyptus tree was struck by lightning while I was away and it opens up the view a lot. I can almost see the sea and certainly Doskos island and a bit of the Peloponnese. Actually these photos don't do it justice. I always think the top part is like the background in a Renaissance painting.

This little green window has crept into my recent paintings I think. I must look at it a lot.


I'm off to Athens today to see Tony Church's one man show and to buy a Baglamas. Probably a day to be here but I do like Athens although it's always a real shock arriving in Piraeus a encountering traffic, in fact traffic in spades

 

30th October 2003

These are what I'm working on at the moment. Provisionally called 'listening to Vambvakaris' (that's what I've been doing as I've been painting.) I started them a while ago on paper but needed to expand them, so stuck the paper onto larger canvasses - I hope it works technically and they don't disintegrate. I might start working on unstretched canvas and then make the stretchers after they're finished so the size is more flexible. But actually I like the feeling that the two different surfaces have here. And it fits with the feeling of being on the outside looking in which I also my feeling about this music. Although at the same time it hits me immediately and directly inside
The second two are the same painting - not sure which way up it will be. One thing some people said after the Cluny show was that my work is all very different. I don't think so as it all looks like mine to me. But anyway I think that these are following on directly from the two 'Music Inside' paintings. My work is getting larger, these are 60 x 80. Most of the work in the Melina Mercouri show last year was pretty small.

Suddenly the sun has come out and I spent a lot of this morning working on a miserable, rainy song. Maybe I'll put it away now, put the CD on and pick up a brush.
25th October 2003
I had to look up the date when I started this which is always a good sign. I only realised it was a Saturday when I went into the Metro Station in Syntagma Square early this morning and it was completely deserted. I presumed there was a strike and was just about to leave to catch a bus when I realised. The journey down to Piraeus was quick and calm although the heat is stifling at the moment. The wind is so obviously from Africa that you expect to hear North African music. If it rains everything will be covered with a layer of orange dust.

I was really pleased with the exhibition although it already seems an age away now. I've just started painting again after quite a break
28th August 2003

In the middle of sorting, mounting and framing I came upon this painting that I’ve been working on for years. It’s had many guises but has always been a pair with a finished painting, ‘the sun tumbles down making things mysterious’. This one has generally been called ‘proi-proi me tin drosia’ which means ‘very early with the dew’. I’ve thought it was finished a few times before then left it and decided it wasn’t. I couldn’t resist working on it again. I’m pleased so far but who knows? The trouble of course is that I really want to be painting now but I don’t have the time.

 

The photos are a bit strange because I’ve used iridescent medium in both pictures. I think the first one still looks unresolved, looking at it next to the finished one. Deciding when something is finished is one of the hardest things about painting.
27th August 2003

At the moment I’m sorting out the nuts and bolts of the exhibition – mirror plates and so on. But I have been sneaking a bit of painting in. I’ve ended up with a pair of paintings from the Hareshaw Linn walk. Called ‘Good day – Hareshaw Linn’ I think. They may or may not be finished and may or may not go in the exhibition. I went to look at the space the other day and it looked frighteningly small. We’re hanging on Sunday so no real decisions can be made until I see it in situ. I’m working on a catalogue at the moment which is more fun than I would have expected. Computers have transformed doing things like that. I’ve sent out so many invitations to people I haven’t seen for ages and it’s been great hearing from them, although it does sometimes feel as though I’m organising my own funeral.

I was interviewed for an article in the Journal and now I’m worried that I said stupid or pretentious things but there’s nothing I can do about it now. It’s going to be in the paper on the day of the opening. I’m listening to Greek music as I’m working and thinking about doing some paintings using Rebetika as the starting point. I go to the annual Rebetika gathering in Hydra in October and hopefully I’ll really get painting then.

 

Going Backwards........More Work in Progress