Our bookclub choice this month was Joy Cowley's "Navigation". I was fascinated by (amongst other things) her descriptive passage of rowing out to fish in the dark in the Sounds. Joy paints such vivid pictures with words - you are right there with her looking up at the stars, trying to pick out shapes in the darkness, feeling the fish on the line, listening to night noises.
Several days ago I sold a painting of some musterers, and the buyer told me that she was buying it because it told the story of the relationship of the men, the horses, the dogs - and what they'd been doing.
When I'm painting I don't always think about the story behind the subject, but I'm becoming aware that paintings with stories are usually more interesting! This one that I've just finished is a little dinghy which I spotted moored near Nelson. It's battered and rusty, settles on the mud at low tide and bobs about when the sea comes back in. I guess that it belongs to somebody with a bigger boat who uses it to get backwards and forwards to the shore- but I've never seen them. I enjoy paintings with a bit of mystery- you can make up your own story!
Several days ago I sold a painting of some musterers, and the buyer told me that she was buying it because it told the story of the relationship of the men, the horses, the dogs - and what they'd been doing.
When I'm painting I don't always think about the story behind the subject, but I'm becoming aware that paintings with stories are usually more interesting! This one that I've just finished is a little dinghy which I spotted moored near Nelson. It's battered and rusty, settles on the mud at low tide and bobs about when the sea comes back in. I guess that it belongs to somebody with a bigger boat who uses it to get backwards and forwards to the shore- but I've never seen them. I enjoy paintings with a bit of mystery- you can make up your own story!
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