Art Crisis!!

Having a style crisis at the moment - spent much of the weekend trying to finish the two paintings I started for the Arts-Forum auction, decided that they wouldn't be finished and framed in time, so found an empty frame and did a painting for it. All three are OK but that's about it, and here's me thinking I'm quite good! Seemed kind of formulaic - a product.

I guess all artists go through times of self-doubt - as an abstract painter, I really should remember how I felt when I had been to the fabulous Rothko at Tate modern - it made me think that there is value in repetition and development/evolution in small, incremental stages.

When I think also of the abstract expressionists in general - Kline, Pollack, Newman, any of them really, and also the ceramicists I admire - Hamada, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper - I should see that they all tended to repeat a basic model with only minor changes throughout their productive years. From this, you might deduce that jumping around in style is detrimental to one's getting known as an artist - people do like to recognise artists by their work - makes them feel cultured and clever. So maybe my sticking to filling in boxes with maps stuck to them is not lazy but brilliant.

There we go, talked myself out of that one!! All is well with the world once again.

Had Malcolm and Katie round for dinner on Saturday - good talk about music, the world, the universe etc etc, good food and a lot of margerita and red wine. A peaceful weekend afterwards but then, last night, took the dog out for a walk in the pouring rain - he leaps out of the back door in the dark and suddenly finds himself on the lawn shin-deep in water - there's a river running through Janet's garden, so spent the next 20 mins trying to get the manhole cover up outside, to let what will now become known as "the great flood" run off down the road. Success eventually, and with sodden clothes returned to a hero's welcome, and chicken curry.