I decided today that two rather annoying virtual studio assistants need to be given their marching orders! They’re called Smudge and Mudge! They are not the helpful type of art assistant who prepare canvases, wash brushes, update your website and makes you cups of tea! (If only!) Mine are an increasingly curmudgeonly pair of inner critics who are rarely satisfied at my efforts and give me a hard time. Smudge and Mudge are workaholics too and responsible for an ouchy painting arm at times!
‘Smudge and Mudge you’re fired! Bugger off please!’
Joking apart, it feels rather helpful to give the voices of doubt a name!
Smudge and Mudge are responsible for the fact that many of my paintings are not one painting but hundreds of paintings layered one on top of the other. A million layers of doubt!
This is a recent example of the last two layers of a painting that has been finished several times over!
I think it’s finished. I finally like it as a whole image and not just parts of the painting. Resolving it meant losing a lot of the drawing in favour of paint.
The Winged Messenger, Mixed Media on Canvas, 150 x 100 cm
