Soap opera series

This is not a series so much as a set of four and I hesitate to write about it. I decided to do so simply because I hadn’t written about my practice for a number of days and had also met a point of stasis due to the fact that this week I have several evening commitments either pencilled in or otherwise. The ‘Soap opera’ series of paintings represents a departure in a new direction because until recently I’d been making standalone works, though the ‘NRL’ series can easily be framed in three sections each of six panels (and I did a round 18 panels for this reason).

The reason for starting the ‘Soap opera’ series was because of faults in the previous ‘Crime drama’ series, two of the panels of which are substandard. In that series two of the panels have women looking down but this pose is inexactly rendered and the women who are both the same woman look like different individuals. In fact I am so dissatisfied with them that I will probably go back and redo them instead of ploughing on, I hate to leave a job badly finished.

I like to be tidy.

I had planned to do a ‘Disaster’ series based on a bridge collapse in 2007 for which I have photos in my archives. This will have to wait even though I have already assembled the text necessary to complete it. You can see in the images above that I’ve included TWO bits of text in each panel, one in collage and one in Posca. Sitting in front of the TV and noting down promising advertising slogans allows me to formulate the artwork in my leisure time when I can be productive due to planning.

The ’Soap opera’ series uses photos of ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ a favourite show of mine that I routinely tune into in the late afternoon weekdays. I matched the faces with advertising slogans, see if you can pick the faces and the companies that paid for the ads. As I’ve said elsewhere I often find the ads more entertaining than the programs and certainly the quality of the drama or the perceptiveness of the psychological insights is just as sophisticated in either case (this isn’t saying much for TV shows) allowing me to mentally sneer while exposing myself to the illumination of the television screen on its entertainment cabinet. Perhaps my time would be better spent reading a book but I have had trouble concentrating on literature or history since Putin began his ghastly and illegal adventure on his western border.

And see if you can spell out the sentence made on the panels.

This week I have several evening events to go to and will probably get time for painting though knowing me I’ll just refuse to go along to an opening for a show of paintings and stay home making my own instead. Last week I’d planned to go out to a poetry reading one night but had a need to paint so stayed home instead of catching the train to North Sydney.

I need time, lots of free time.

Since the 22nd I’ve been restocking the garden, mostly just finding things to buy on Facebook Marketplace, making an appointment, and jumping in the car to drive. I went north (Wahroonga, Warriewood) and south (Sylvania, Monterey) for pots and plants and bought soil from two different places including my local IGA which stocks potting mix out the front near the checkouts. I garden in bursts of activity in the same way I paint, I’ll do four watercolours in a day, cut out the collage and stick it on once the paper’s dried, then add the Posca marks before going to bed. Like that old government health campaign: “slip, slap, slop.”