Anything you like

My good friend from across the seas rang me yesterday - a delightful suprise to hear his voice, and satisfying for us both  to have our usual interesting chat together He could hear how upbeat I was about setting up my new house, and getting my studio up and running, and we talked of  my art, as we always do. I made the comment that I just lurvvvve painting, no matter what the subject. He laughed in agreement and said jokingly "You'd even enjoy painting my computer, wouldn't you Jackie!" and I laughed back in amusement.

And then I realised a truth.

That I would actually really enjoy painting it - even if it was something as "unexciting" as a computer. I'd enjoy drawing it out, choosing the colours, painting it, getting the lighting and compostion right, and looking at the finished picture, knowing that I had painted it and got as good a match to the original as I could.

Having said that, I'm sure you could think of far more interesting subjects for me to paint.....................

Re-connecting

I'm still waiting patiently for my internet to be set up at the new house, so am having to blog where I can, on other computers. Not an ideal situation, but one I can work around, until I'm set up. At least I've got a landline now, althought that was a farce in the background to set that up! Having spent 26 minutes on the phone last week trying to get through to someone (well, three "someones" actually!) to be told that my details were wrong, and they wouldn't speak to me unless I gave them my reference number (which I hadn't got on me, as I wasn't at home, and hadn't expected to speak to them on that day, else I'd have taken the reference number with me!). Only to be told, when I'd given them my name, address, date of birth and new phone number, that the details I had given them were wrong. "No they're not". "Yes, you've got the birth date wrong".  Sigh. "No I haven't". "Well, its not what we've got written down here". "Well you've got it wrong, not me". "Well, you can't give us the date written down here, so we won't speak to you". "BUT, YOU'VE GOT IT WRONG, NOT ME!!!! Like you got my title wrong, my address incomplete, and now my date of birth you've got wrong, too!!!!" "Well. we still won't speak to you....." I put the phone down in complete and utter frustrated anger. Idiots!!!!!!!!!!!

So,the next day, when the phone engineer arrived on the doorstep to set up the landline, he was a very welcome sight! I told him about the conversation I'd had with the service provider and he said he couldn't understand why it takes ten working days for anything to happen regarding changing lines, putting lines in, putting the internet in, or setting up the internet, and his summing up of it was "admin!" - so due to even more "admin" I'm having to wait another fortnight for internet connection...............

But, all of that waiting for phone lines being installed was over shadowed by a conversation I had yesterday with a painter and decorator. He was doing some decorating work at a house I was visiting, where my artwork was hanging on the wall. He knew that I had painted it, and he raved over it - the colours, the light, the subject matter. I thanked him, and had a big cheesy grin on my face as we talked, and I got more and more animated as I descibed other artwork I'd done - of portraits of  much beloved and much missed people for grieving families, soulful pets, special scenes, erotic art (to which he responded, "If any man tells you he's not interested in erotic art, he's lying!" which brought a bigger grin to my face!), the fantasy fannies, abstracts, surreal art, camouflage art with hidden messages, and erotic landscapes. His eyes widened with every description, and he said he'd look at my website with great interest. And as I got all fired up with the telling of what I'd achieved, I realised how much I've missed it this last year, whilst I've been sorting out my life, and finding somewhere new to live, and setting up my new house and studio. I can't wait to fire my passions up again, and find new artworks to paint, new commissions to enliven peoples lives with, new galleries to hang my work, new places to sell my pictures.

And more people to tell, about what I do, and what I can do for them.

Watching and learning through good taste

I happened to catch a programme on the telly the other night - MasterChef. It's not something I've ever watched before, but it caught my eye and I watched it with rising interest. I like cooking, and nice food, so it was something that piqued my gourmet tastebuds. The young men were all vying to show their expertise in the kitchen and during the episode they were shown a pile of luscious food piled up, all market fresh and of the highest possible quality. They were instructed to go and pick whatever they wanted from the pile, an array of venision, lobster, beef, crevettes, lamb, guinea fowl, vegetables and fruit, and from their choice had to produce three dishes from scratch, which were then judged by the master chef, the foody television presenter and three food critics.

I watched as they made their choices, chopped and prepared, sauteed, stirred, mixed and seasoned, roasted and boiled, then then arranged artistically on a plate. Ready to be judged. They all had had the same pile of fresh food to choose from, but some had chosen beef, others went for the guinea fowl, or lobster, some  picked carrots, others lentils, cabbage or peas. At the end of the session all six had produced through their knowledge and practical expertise some unique and fabulously flavoursome  dishes - some I wouldn't have personally chosen to eat, but certainly all looked delicious and were creative masterpieces, both visually and epicurally (if that's a word?!).

The next day, I was still thinking about it. And thought how much I admired what they had created from scratch. Each picking different items from the same pile, and making something magical with it.

And then it dawned on me.

That's what I do.

And, that's how other people react, when they see what I've painted. Starting from scratch.
And I understood fully that that's why people like to watch creative people at work. To see what they make from thin air, based on their talents and knowledge.

Of course, people also like to watch men dig holes in the ground too.......... LOL