From both sides now

I am beginning to think that painting is about a succession of what I can call, safe in the knowledge of the Simpson's global conquest, 'Doh' moments. This morning I put into practise yesterday's observation of my tendency to paint-scrimp and sure enough - 'Doh' - more paint means more flexibility, sponteneity, boldness of drawing and therefore accuracy of drawing...
I never know whether to be exilerated by these discoveries or to see it as a continuum down the ages; I love the idea of Leonardo suffering the same revelatory moments... or is it just me..?

Spent a successful day in the studio, results of which are on my new Studio View page, where I will try and remember to take photos of the stages of pictures in progress. Did discover that in a game of 'stone, scissors, paper' of art materials, 'bic biro' beats 'acrylic paint'. The under sketch I did in biro straight on the board still shows through the paint after three, four layers - impressive. I will have to varnish the offending section and paint on top, then revarnish; see if that works. In some parts the biro looks kind of cool, but in others it just reveals where my original drawing went wrong...

Great clouds today, from big, white on blue cotton candy puffs - ginormous ones, to this afternoon's fantastic grey laden Chinese watercolour udders, for want of a better word. The sky was in 'pouches' of dark, sodden mass emptying its load on the city quite spectacularly. Also considering a fantastic park surrounded by cherry trees and occupied by sinister, loitering gulls and numerous dogs in different shapes and sizes; surely a painting there! There is also a lone goal post in the dead centre of the green square with its surrounding mud hole. This was the scene under the hefty sky, so the whole effect was pretty special. Also a dog called Archie, so what more do I need - watch out for 'Archie's Park' coming to the blog soon.

A good and wholesome tea tonight of the vegetarian variety; delved into the store drawer for my 79p Aldi gnocchi and Stu wizarded up a nifty little sauce of onion, lovely pointy red peppers, olives, manchego and so much chilli that my nose has been watering ever since - in a good way - nothing like chilli-ing up the old sinuses! The olives, manchego and some of the chilli came in a tubby from Waitrose; handy way of getting a few ingredients that would break the budget if bought separately, and felt like a real treat!

Clouds is the word of the day today, as they ended up being a bit of a feature in the pic I finished today, as yet untitled but I think it has to be something cloudy and eveningy. Will go and sleep on it.