Oil on Board
24" x 24"
WIP

31.12.2007

P.S. to last bog - and short. Yes that's the look - shortarse Clint Eastwood in Where Eagles Dare, with stubble (I've trimmed my beard since Friday) and glasses and carrying an easel and paints and stuff and old scruffy clothes.

So here we are, the last day of the year. I resolved when I started this blog to keep it going for a year and that will take me, more or less, to the end of January, but I think this is a good point to pause and reflect on how far we've come, the massive strides we've made and the wrongs we've righted.

...

Okay, enough navel gazing (it doesn't make for pretty viewing), on with today's efforts.

Back to London Road (because of course I have the other tyre that needs to be replaced and so at last I will have a spare again). As I walk to Bella Zia's (still deserted and sad) an ambulance blares it's siren, weaves it's way through the traffic lights and heads off down London Road. As I set up it's followed by two more. Ten minutes later, sirens still going, one of the ambulances speeds back past me towards the hospital.

I keep going with the painting. My brushes don't seem as bad as last time - maybe it was just the difficult wind conditions - and things seem to generally go okay. I get a bit annoyed with the no entry sign as it's a bit central and in the way, but it's there now - maybe I'll take it out next time. I'm resigned to the fact that there will be a next time as I've left my traffic light green in the studio and I know better than to try and fake it.

Lots of people walk by - must be busy in town. Most of them look at the painting and quite a few of those pause and make an attempt at communication (despite the i-pod and lack of eye contact). Most prevalent it seems is a loss for words when they look at the painting close up. A couple of compliments give me hope, but overall the response is under-whelming. That said, it isn't the most picturesque of views, and let's not forget it is a grey and dismal day. I do some pencil work around the edges and, just to see, a bit on the no-entry sign, which improves it no end although the jury remains out.

Right, that's it then - my tyre is once again calling. I'll have to finish it next year.

Happy New Year to all of you out there in blog reader land (deliberately phrased to imply loads of readers). As I post this it's coming up to 6.00 and time, me thinks, for the first of many toasts to the old and the new and everything in between.