Working to deadlines without compromising on what you want to deliver – same in art as everything else – means shutting yourself away, working furiously, and blotting out stuff. Then life catches up. Chores: a rampant garden, untidy house, desk full of papers, reproachful inbox. Sad things: the loss of a dearest friend. Good things: a wonderful birthday celebration, some overdue cheques..and my first visit to the Globe Theatre on Millbank which was a real delight: good company, good acting, the obligatory rain – and a wonderful building.
Some if not all these things will find their way into my art pieces to come – the curved half-timbering on the theatre has whetted my appetite. Some ideas are slow-burning and take years to mature. And sometimes I pluck an image, a colour, an idea, something or anything, from anywhere around me and put it straight into the piece I’m working on. Serendipity…