This week was a slow start

 

This week was a slow start back into life – a few lectures, a couple of nights out and some gorgeous long days in my studio.   On Wednesday I gave the evening ten minute talks at the National.  I always ask for these despite or perhaps because of how nervous I get playing that role of the art historian / academic. 

I stand aware that there are steep edges around the knowledge I have and I’m always on a bit of a high afterwards from stepping further and further towards the edge and finding that I didn’t fall off.  The visitors seemed to enjoy following each part of the tour, even allowing for the kindness of strangers, and in fact the main thing I could work on is speaking much slower and looking at the painting more. 

Today I got the master class when I was working with Marion for the talk and draw and she is remarkable.   When she talks, there’s this quality of spaciousness when you’re listening to her.  She has this precise economy of words, which builds up into this lavish spread of knowledge.

Which is by the way how I’m going to try and crow-arm a reference to my drawings this week.  There’s something about the brittleness of the drawings that I’m making of my studio, which is a mess right now with boxes of books, plates and bin bags of winter clothes left over from the move, that convey huge amounts of information.

I’m still working out whether I’m loving the quality of the marks themselves and the language of marks or how much it is about developing a language to talk about looking, which is where the perspective falls in.  But if I can take the next few weeks like this and go slower and look at the drawing more I think I will work it out.