I’ve temporarily relocated to a new studio even further from civilization in an attempt to get to grips with landscape. I’m trying to work out what landscape can do or express that the figure can’t.

Most of my favourite landscapes were painted by artists (like Klimt, Schiele, etc.) who normally dealt with the figure. COINCIDENCE? PROBABLY. I suspect I just like the artist’s style, regardless of subject matter. But at the very least, I want to find out what aspects of my own style carry over to landscape, or don’t, so I get a clearer picture of what my own style actually is. I should know this by now. 

In other the-penny-drops news, I have been messing around with a violin and am only just getting a handle on the idea of musical keys and the parameters that can define or at least give colour to a whole genre. Like why a blues song sounds like a blues song, for example. 

A clunky metaphor. I’m trying to find out what key I play best in. 

Painting in the photo is a work in progress, 1×1.5m, oil on linen.