My self portrait project has been dragging on for so long now that I’ll be glad to get it finished. Saying that, I’m keen to get on with the final paintings and I feel that the process will be cathartic for me. Today I have the second canvas stitched up and ready to paint on (the first is already on its way to being completed). I should really swap the order that I just mentioned those paintings around, since the one that is already under way is actually the second of the pair, entitled Self Portrait July 2012, while the first of the pair is Self Portrait June 2012. A lot changed in those two months for me last year and the paintings reflect that. I feel that I’m in a better position to go through with the actual painting of them now, after dragging my heels for a year, and perhaps they are something that I need to see through and get past to enable me to concentrate on new work. With that in mind, I’m going to really throw myself into finishing them as soon as possible.

I’ve also been having meetings with Michael Borkowsky, with who I share my new studio, about our long overdue collaboration. We found common ground with the Biblical sea monster Leviathan, and we are planning a collaboration in which Michael makes the paints and I paint the final piece. We are going to set up a blog and are planning an exhibition for some time next year. We plan to dedicate an area of the studio to the collaboration and have both now gone away to do research on the subject. I admire his experimental approach and predict interesting results as his way of working either complements or clashes with my own, very careful and considered approach.

Self Portrait July 2012 being projected onto canvas