It’s late April 2025. Over the (cold) winter months I’ve been making a series of oil paintings, stepping away from complete abstraction in favour of a hard and strong composition with knife edge curves; bright colours tempered with soft neutrals and a sparing use of light and shade to give depth. Painting in oils is not without challenge at any time of the year, but the winter months offer up unique difficulties. Firstly the lack of daylight hours and with the small amount of light you get being thin and weak. I have several daylight balanced lights but it’s not the same as painting in daylight, everything slightly off. The painfully slow paint drying time slows down further to a snail’s pace, the potent small of turps heightened with windows and doors shut, and then of course trying to keep warm and dry is a challenge in itself, my 20 year old paint splattered gilet (with a few poppers now missing) only ever comes off at night and a good 3 pairs of socks is an essential to avoid ice cube feet and toes.
