Oil paint on canvas panel, 10 x 8″, August 25 2017
Dear Theo, As you can see I am quite literally plastering the paint on, insofar as one can be said to do such a thing when one paints small – small panel, small brushes. I am also now signing my work with my surname in squiggly letters and including the last two digits of the date (year.) These small canvas boards, of which I have a great pile, are very useful for this purpose of painting in the rain. I can carry my easelled panel to the selected location (which doesn’t matter too much the important thing being that I am out in the open air) in one hand and in the other a palette with colours squeezed onto it plus a couple of hog brushes. Besides one doesn’t have to travel far when one lives in the centre of such a wet and green environment. I now work very fast as you know… why torture paint? I am also stretching and priming ten new canvases, 28 x 20″, a very nice format. As you know I like to keep changing the size and shape of my supports. And I am making frames too and painting them white. I have previously been painting them black which was probably a mistake since according to the psychologists white is a neutral colour. Yes, black outlines do confine. White around the border creates the idea of unlimited space. That’s all for now. Ever yours, Peter