Musings or ramblings

To muse is to engage in reverie - I think. Its a nice* thought, here I am sat in front of this PC musing and thinking about thinking - in a reverie!

*Nice, now there's a word, it can mean - fastidious, over-particular, hard to please, dainty, punctilious, scrupulous, acute, discerning, discriminating, sensitive to minute differences, requiring delicate discrimination or tact; or, more colloquially - pleasing or agreeable, satisfactory, attractive, friendly, kind......

Painting - I think a lot when painting. Applying paint to a surface with a brush is fraught with difficulties. Not least all the doubts about whether the colour is mixed 'correctly', whether there is just the right amount of paint on the hairs, whether the paint should be rubbed, scrubbed, stroked or ground in.

But that's the least of it. So many other things to think about. Painting can be a form of reverie too - a meditation. It is possible to exclude all distractions for a few brief moments while being in this state of 'niceness' brought on by the act of painting. Hours go by - sometimes - without reference to the passing of time and then - what has been achieved? Very often, not much but the value of those intensive minutes and possibly hours is considerable and can be measured or reflected in different ways. A feeling of satisfaction emerges if the image on the surface has moved on a little, constructively - that is, when the changes wrought by the brush bring the image closer to the vision in the mind's eye.

Achieving the emotional and visual links between the, incomplete, inner vision and the resulting image on the surface can be immensely satisfying and re-assuring. Though, failure to make the connection between thought and image is devastatingly depressing and de-motivating.

Sometimes, no nearly always, the 'inspiration' or the original 'idea' is so nebulous and elusive that the effort in realising it on a flat plain is excessive and wearisome, and invariably falls short. Painting is paradoxically and simultaneously a heart-breaking and heart-warming experience - but always 'nice'.

Have a look at my web site - http://www.art-insight.co.uk/