Darth Vader meets Obi One Kenobi

So today is the big day! In Search of Rory McEwen airs tonight on BBC4. I actually keep forgetting! Luckily, I frequently get these helpful little reminders on Twitter and by my mother, who, whilst beaming with pride, keeps popping her head into my studio and graciously reminding me. We are having a dinner party at our house tonight so she is busy cooking a Lamb Tagine and organising things. The house smells divine - little wafts of cinnamon and turmeric are seeping under the kitchen door and are slowly filling the house. 

Anyway, luckily for me, I seem to have been given permission to skulk off to the house next door where I will be able to stream live. Fingers crossed this permission is still in place by 8.30pm my time! There is a little snippet of the programme here: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02jn510

This will eventually become a very large pineapple (Ananus comosus) 

Since loosing my mojo and regaining it over the past five days I haven't that much to report on. It's fair to say that this week has flown by. I have been busy thinking about our summer show that we are holding in Granada - more of that to follow - and participated in a lengthy meeting about it on Tuesday. I have to say I have really enjoyed getting involved in a little bit of curatorial work again. I find it gives all the work one does in the studio a bit of context.

  

Close up on the Pineapple - a work in progress

On Monday I started painting a pineapple (Ananus comosus). He is called Obi One* and is awesome. I am taking great pleasure in trying to capture all the colours and textures. It is very detailed work though and I having to use a dry brush to keep the control. With all of this concentration, Obi One has become my 'I need to get lost in something detached from me' piece. If you are interested, Dianne Sutherland has written a beautiful and informative blog post about her Pineapples here. 

Close up on the Pineapple - a work in progress

Then there is the other piece - the piece with no name. I started this nasty piece of work on Wednesday and I tell you something - it's pretty evil. A while ago I decided that I wanted to start painting on black, because I felt 'black' and I wanted to move away from paper. As a number of you know, I hoped to do this in oils, but after experimenting with gouache and acrylic I decided that I couldn't achieve the translucency that one gets with watercolour and decided to scrap the idea all together. That's part of the reason of why I lost my mojo. I suppose I should have tried the oil paint, but it is quite a hefty financial investment when one isn't completely sure.

Cabbage leaf - a work in progress

Anyway, when I woke up on Wednesday morning I thought 'sod it' and started drawing out Mr. Creepy downstairs. Mum was gutted that I had decided to put Obi One to one side, but I was feeling pretty restless and it was not a good day to be doing dry brush. No - today is a DARK day. This cabbage leaf is my 'I need to get lost in something within myself' piece. I intend to do the background in dry brush to stop the paper cockling. Who know's what it will look like. I have absolutely NO IDEA, but the process is very cathartic and I finally feel like I am doing what I wanted to be doing - pushing the boundaries.

Cabbage leaf - a work in progress

*Obi One was originally called Piers (see previous blog post) but I have decided to break with tradition of alliterative names - this does happen from time to time!