Inside and outside the studio
The creative artistic process is not one which can be commanded and kicked around. Sometimes there is a need to be grumpy, irritated, restless, unorganized, etc. And then something happens. And sometimes it is necessary to be playful and just goof off and not worry about the results. Like I did with this painting.
It looks like someone is knocking on the window, wondering if there is anything of interest inside…
And yesterday I was watching my buddy, the crow, as he (she?) was scanning the surroundings for something edible. So I threw out some old bread on the grass and placed a few pieces on the wall outside the kitchen window. Within moments he was there, he had been watching me from a nearby tree. He picked up three pieces of bread, all he could grab with his slender beak. Then he flew away, just outside the hedge, and hid the pieces. However, there has a bunch of gulls out in the field and he was maybe afraid they had noticed, so he came back for more bread, then he just hopped over to the tall grass and hid the bread, picked up a few pieces of moss and concealed the bread! Then he came back a third time and picked up more bread, which he simply stuck down on into an old mole-hole and concealed the bread with moss.
Now there was only bread left on the wall and he was doing a strange and cautious process of getting closer and being brave enough to get up on the wall to pick more bread pieces. Finally he flew up and landed on the wall, picked as much bread as he could and flew away. I just realized I needed to try to get a photo of him and brought my camera. By this time the magpies had noticed something was happening and they soon detected the bread on the wall. My buddy the crow returned and landed on a branch in a nearby tree. While he was scanning the situation one magpie quickly flew down, landed in the wall and started picking up pieces of bread. I managed to snap a few pictures.
I guess the crow was more fond of his own life than a few pieces of old bread, so he let the magpies get the rest and I never managed to snap a good photo of him. Maybe another time, I will try again.
A short while later I came back to the kitchen and saw how he was back under the tall grass, retrieving some of his hidden bread. He picked up two pieces and turned around and in a blink of an eye a magpie landed behind him and stole the last piece of bread. Such intelligent and beautiful creatures!
Later in the evening, nine minutes after ten, just as the rain started falling, I snapped a picture of the steel face outside the studio. Speak about being part of nature…
Right now my hands are sore, because for several hours I have been cutting a fine line in this plywood piece…
The piece is 48 x 40 cm.
