Flustered angels?

Playing with my new tools of the trade today; loving the Indanthrene blue - a very dark purpley blue that I have so far only used 'undiluted' as a base but imagine it will mix in interesting ways. You can never have too many blues. Also in love with the 'long flat', brush, having extolled the virtue of the Filbert not so long ago.. what a flirt. It gives such a definate, precise line or stroke, but not in a graphic way, just allows a nice degree of control when placing a block or patch of colour. I'm painting a boat on which lives the 'Angel Whisperer', so there is a certain degree of control needed as I am not by nature a boat expert. Looks good thus far though.

Stu did some amazing research for me today into the title for this and further works concerning the lady, who now goes under the name of Madame Tabere. I have been provided with translations from various nationalities of kitchen staff of the key 'angel whisperer' words, which I can use in different titles. Her name is a mixture of bastardised German and, obviously, French, denoting her mysterious multi-national origins.

Bumped into another painter who I am amazed I haven't seen before via a magazine supplement ( I think - can't now remember whether it was there or on the internet) - Alice Neel, 1900 - 1984 and painting all of those years. A portraitist when it was neither fashionable or popular with the 'avant-garde' (is it ever?) she has a wonderfully natural, revealing way of capturing friends, famous aquaintances and strangers alike. One biog. I read suggests her ability was 'to detect a hidden weakness in her sitters which she drags out, yelping into the clear light of day.' She certainly had a gift for capturing the 'person' rather than just the figure and all her studies, which she described as her 'selection of souls' show the vulnerability and human frailty we all share. There was also a fabulous shot of her hallway in one of her later houses in New York, the walls lined with paintings of all shapes and sizes; a scene to bring a warm glow to all of us painters who worry about filling our homes with our creations.. The painters I associated her with in my mind at least were fellow capturers of the soul, and women artists, Paula Rego and Frida Kahlo. Love to catch some of her work if it is shown en masse at some future time.

So; a frustrating couple of days of cash-work to go and then I can have some quality time with

'Der Engel Flusterer'...