How long did that take?
After I finish a painting I’m always asked; “How long did that take?” It’s the most common question. Such a simple question and usually the expected answer is a number expressed in hours or days however it’s not that simple. Each painting goes through a few stages; the planning stage where I collect all the images I need and scribble (as I’m terrible at drawing) ideas and different compositions, the drawing on and blocking in main colours stage, the ‘ugly’ stage, the ‘it’s not good enough stage’ and finally when it all starts coming together. There’s no set time for each of these stages. A painting can be stuck so long in the ugly stage that I can’t bear looking at it anymore and must put it at the back of a wardrobe until months later when I rediscover it and see the problem. Others breeze through that stage and are a pleasure to paint from start to finish. Also my friend and mentor, Souzie said to me years ago that sometimes you can spend a hours in your studio with a painting and not put a single brushstroke on the canvas. As frustrating as this is I’ve found it to be true. Sometimes it needs to all be sorted in my head before I can begin to transfer the image from my mind onto the canvas.
If was to paint what I was painting 10 years ago in the same way I’d have nikau trees, waves and birds done in a fraction of the time and to a much tidier standard. But I couldn’t stand doing that. In fact, I find everything takes longer as my skills improve as I try to always add more depth and detail. Each painting is a lesson, an opportunity to learn and improve. And the best way to do that is to observe your subject matter. And who better to show me how to do that than my two boys. They notice everything. The world is a wonder to them, every walk, play on the beach and river swim a great adventure filled with new discoveries. So where do you I draw the line between work and play? Recently I’ve been working on a painting of rockpools underwater so we’ve been on lots of coastal walks to study the patterns, colours and shapes of different seaweeds, rocks and shells. We’ve collected treasures we’ve found washed up and been snorkeling to see how the water flows through to weed.
I don’t think that the time a painting takes is solely calculated on the time with brush in hand. Certainly my mind spends more time on it than that. So when you invest in one of my paintings I hope that when you see it on your wall you not only see a collection of brushstrokes on canvas but the awe, wonder and peace that I feel in the outdoors.