For about three years I have had six Windsor and Newton 6X6 canvases I bought in a sale at £2 each.  Because I am not a ‘proper’ artist, I haven’t done anything with them.   I refer you to my last blog entry for not being THAT good at drawing.  Same goes for painting.

So I was looking for a box in my box box, and came across one of the canvases.  I removed the plastic which had kept it three years in my possession, unsullied.  Now it was open to the room and me, and whatever we could throw at it.  This proved a bit much for me, so I left it on the table and went downstairs to make a coffee.  The room talked amongst itself.

When I came back to, the frame was back to front, with its tummy on the table.  I don’t think it did it on its own, dear reader, I imagine I left it like that in my haste. I had always preferred the underside of these things, with staples holding the canvas taut, and the factory markings inked on.  I like the way that every material used to make the object are tensing to be that object, and not just separate materials.    And these are lovely sturdy things – more wood than canvas, they are.  In fact, from the back, they almost look like….. boxes.  The penny drops after three years.  Sometimes I shake my head sadly at myself from the other side of the room.

I think I was so set on the idea of ‘one day I will paint something wonderful on this surface’, that I was too dense to realise why I picked them up in the first place.  They are satisfying objects, not waiting surfaces.  This feels like a major breakthrough somehow, and part of the process of finding my ‘voice’ as a visual artist/practioner/whatever.

I’m pasting the ‘thing’ in here.  You will see a doll has been harmed in the making of it.  If it makes you feel any better, the doll had also been sitting around in my materials store for years and years.  Here she is finally being put to use.  Her ears are being used in another piece, but her eyes were too pretty…