I was up with the crows working on Get a Grip, freezing cold after -1 degree night, frost on the ground and cars etc.
I am very happy about this piece it is expressive and contemporary, the photo a little brighter than the original, just a little, but I'm heading in the right direction, feel no need to diverge now, the old eclectic call has been silenced, I have varied subject matter that with hold my interest without the need to switch styles. Expressionism was always where I was at, but it took many years to see the light, my attachment to realism and surrealism confused me. I have let go of mirror images copied from photos, phew, what a relief, I never really felt good about copy even as a child, I use to be asked how did you get such a good likeness, did you use a photo, I use to be embarrassed to say yes I did, in those days copy was frowned on, unlike today, with the immergence of photorealism and it's popularity, people don't appear to mind that the artist sit and reproduced an imaged that is not original and a copy of the work of a photographer, it never sat with me, but still I spent hours in practise, it is popular with folk and for commissions for portrait a valuable skill. These days most of my portraits are of no one particular, faces that appear from a conglomerate of paint an emergence from the depths of my psyche.
