I finished stretching all 75 of the large batch of canvases. Stretching the larger, 30x30cm, canvases was far more of a chore but thankfully I had learn to pace myself and just attempted a few a day. I’m unlikely to focus on priming these fully in the near future as my work space in the house isn’t very large. This week I planned to get the 20x20cm ones all primed to a finish. This process usually takes the longest. The last time this process took far longer than it should have done. I have since learned that perfecting the surface to such a high level isn’t absolutely necessary for the future because later in the painting process, the layers start to build up and flatten the surface anyway.
I attempted to get to gips with Adobe Photoshop that the University provided free of charge since we are not allowed to use it on the School of Art computers. I spent most of a day designing and editing a signature logo for my blog page. I have also used Photoshop to edit some of my paintings so they look more like they do ‘in the real’. My signature is something I have use for the last few years to sign off an artwork when it is finished. I would usually ‘date’ the piece at the same time. For a few years I would sign the front of my work but I feel now although it is not necessarily a bad thing, I feel it would detract from the image seeing as I work quite small. The signature is now inscribed on the back of each painting. It has little value as far as copyright is concerned, or so I believe. Copyright is there no matter what. Signing just feels like the right thing to do when something is finished.
Having written a few failed drafts of my dissertation I decided a new approach was necessary. I have been making bullet points outlining the most important areas I need to focus on. There is so much I could say but the essay is so short! I have provisionally selected the paintings I would have in my degree show, pending my tutors confirmation of course. It seems weird to be selecting works for a show that won’t exist in the physical sense. Hopefully the online versions might be a decent alternative. So far I have chosen 10 paintings for the show but that may be too many considering the expected number is only 4! I may cut down to fewer images as a back up incase 10 is too many. It is incredibly difficult to decide these things when I cannot see them in person.
Spending so much time indoors sometimes makes one more aware of the interesting beams of light cast through the basement flat windows. I would usually miss these as I would be in the studio for most of the day.
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