8.00 am. I processed the relatively long Matt. 20.21. (The road seems to get steeper towards the end of the race.) 9.20 am. Into the studio to complete the first phase of the final panel for ‘Image & Superscription’, push ‘YWYH‘ a few steps further forward, and reconsider the process by which ‘Chi Rho‘ should be executed. This latter work can either be simple/simple or complex/simple.

What kind of music to I listen to when I’m painting? Presently (and ironically, given the nature of my visual work), free jazz, experimental guitar playing, and a broad palette of other forms of non-intentional music and sound. Henry Purcell gets an airing during the evening sessions.

Inevitably, when pushing paint over a broad surface, drips occur. One has to make a decision about their status. Either they’re a fact of the process of painting, and should remain, or else they’re a fly in the ointment that may necessitate overpainting the sullied area. My all time favourite drip (in someone else’s work) graces Rothko’s Black on Maroon (1958). It’s a small incident, but one that asserts the act of painting, the presence of the active artist, and the nature of paint:

11.00 am.  I decided to opt for the complex/simple option with respect to ‘Chi Rho‘. However, on this occasion, I’ll be filling-in with only one layer of paint in order to animate the surface:

12.00 pm. At the School, I engage a collective rumination with a colleague on methods of converting Excel sheets to pdfs, to jpgs, and then to print. One success, one unaccountable failure. One persists.

2.00 pm. No solution to the Excel issue, still. Paint is a phenomenon unto itself; at one and the same time compelling, disturbing, and mildly erotic:

‘Chi Rho‘ is now well underway, and already has a distinctive identity within the group of painted works.

6.20 pm. Practise session 1. 7.30 pm. On with the writing. The burden of explanation, exposition, and elucidation is tiresome.