I've now started working on the final canvases of my picture 'Memento Mori'. Each member of the family is represented by a bubble in the nine paintings.
I thought I had completed the first one when I realised I had missed a bubble out! At school, I was always rubbish at Maths.
Luckily, without changing the composition too much, I was able to paint an extra bubble in the far off distance.
I'll need to be more careful with the next one.
I was visiting an art college and wandered into a large modern building, where high up, I saw a Victorian puppet theatre. As I got closer I realised that there were people inside and they invited me to join them.
Everyone began to leave but the only way out was to jump up, to climb out of a slit in the back wall. I didn't have the strength to do it.
When I awoke, the dream was so vivid that I was able to write it down. It was the start of an idea for my next painting! I see my entrapment as a metaphor for the pandemic from which we are trying to escape.
It will be called 'Dreamtime'.
Although our local art shop has been closed since Christmas, I 've managed to get what materials I need through a click and collect system.
I email the head office and arrange a time to collect stuff from the Ely shop when someone will be there.
Recently, I've managed to get the nine canvases for my current painting 'Memento Mori' as well as some oil paints which I was running out of.
The shop should be opening again on 12th April when restrictions are lifted. Lets hope it does, as Click and Collect isn't quite the same as mooching around to see what you could buy.
Although I have some way to go before I've created the perfect bubble, I am starting the final painting anyway.
'Memento Mori' comprises of nine small canvases and I have just finished staining them black before I start the painting. I decided to work 'light over dark' after looking at Millais' painting 'Bubbles' in which the said bubble hovers against a dark background.
Millais apparently had a sphere of crystal especially made for the purpose. I've had to rely on photographs from the Internet and some pictures that Max took of him and Sebastian blowing bubbles a while ago.
I did however, retain a glass Christmas bauble which I thought might prove useful.
