Back on the path today for a composition that we have long since intended to tackle of the curious mound the likes of which one sees often on the grounds of rural houses. We have green trees either side, the red fence cutting across the foreground and granne elisibeth's1 pale yellow house at the rear with snow knitting together the whole and even a little black bird makes an appearance; a first for us and why not? Are little mound's like these some type of cold storage facility? But then why is there not one but two chimneys? Or are those chimneys for ventilation?2 So much we don't know about even these basic trifles, but it matters not their function rather their shape and position as verticals and their relation upwards to the chimney on the house.
Its a bigger canvas this, one of two meter square jobs I found discarded behind the recycling bins at Willy's.3 They are fine quality too with only a thin painting adorning them so quite perfect for us. It would have cost us a very pretty penny to purchase the like, at least 600, so that was a good day and ever since I check those bins as if it were some regular spot for the disposal of old paintings! Perhaps this one will end up there some time although I shouldn't joke about it. We seem to have with us this season some new carefree approach that lets us get on simply, that gives us courage to tackle this type of larger scale that just last year seemed like too bigger deal, as if we had to wait for something special to put on it. Is it the base wretchedness of our prospects and of our ambition that has gifted us this new schumacher attitude?4
Look, tomorrow we better have that dickie bird5 with the sentient Borg. I have managed to find a phone and I feel we must begin before the whole idea becomes something of a dread which we try to put off. We must take the plunge and just begin, and as we discovered during The Wretched Painter messages to Green Dave last year, recording the videos gets easier and in the end can become a sort of desirable and necessary therapy. Perhaps that is what scares us, but with ourselves giving it the biggun6 in the poem and introduction we are under pressure to throw that 'hail Mary pass'7. And that we shall do tomorrow.
Boldly on,
John
1 A neighbor and collector of John's paintings.
2 Yes .
3 One of our supermarkets in Norrtälje.
4 Shoe maker. Likely to refer to Van Gogh letter 615: "if you work as if you were making a pair of shoes, without artistic preoccupations, you will not always do well..."
5 Would appear to be rhyming slang for 'word'. Dickie Bird was a umpire in the sport of cricket.
6 British phrase meaning to be boastful or make exaggerated claims.
7 See Dane Bowers, verse 26: "So under pressure we’ll throw a hail Mary pass. To that sentient Borg in the long grass"
The term 'hail mary pass' derives from american football and describes the moment at the very end of the game when a very long and hopeful pass is thrown in desperation and thrown without aim. Last chance.