More paintings, more departures. Utilizing a digital knife for blending, and a steel wool effect in some cases. Imagining all of this on massive canvasses, propped up on giant easels, in one of a dozen rooms in my ancient castle by the sea. Thick walls, high ceilings, stone floors — sun and moon seeping in from on high. And mead. Lots of mead.
Castles fill my mind often, but the most recent trigger was seeing two films: The Last Duel, and The Green Knight. I liked them both, but the latter was, well, strange, which is a good bit of the point for A24 movies. I can imagine Jessie L. Weston, a fine scholar and translator of the Gawain poem, rolling over in her grave. Other scholars might lose their heads over the whole thing. Regardless, it does project a mood, and I’ve been in one of those for years, and I think it helped me paint as I watched. The Last Duel, on the other hand, might be the kind of film that viewers will give up on too soon, turned off, perhaps, by appearances. As in, funny hair cuts. That would be a mistake, as it’s told from a number of viewpoints, and all are needed for the story to cohere and provoke. One perspective in particular stands out for its truth in the face of (centuries of) suppression. But I could not paint as I watched it all unfold.
