I have, in my studio, a lifetime of sketchbooks. Some contain writing. Most contain drawings. Some of the drawings are paintings in waiting. Others have been charmed out from the sketchbook and on to people's walls.
There's one that has lingered long on my walls. It comes from a series of paintings of women and bears. Three of these paintings in particular are huge, though the sketches were so small.
and
The thirdof these was painted after a friend had got married. Her wedding dress was beautiful. It was green, with leaves embroidered into it. It looked wild. And she was very beautiful, with dark hair and such a face. I so wanted to paint the dress, but even as I started I knew that I'd got something wrong. There was something about how I was painting the leaves that wasn't quite right. But I had painted so much that I didn't want to throw it away, so I worked a way around it. You can still see the green, under some of tthe yellow. On the right of her dress, as it hangs below her hair.
And she is a rare painting as she still hangs hangs in my home. ( I prefer to have the paintings of others hanging on my walls- I don't really wish to look at my own work for too long). She's been exhibited. There are prints of the piece. Indeed one has been a reward for funding The Unwinding. And she has a story, as do all of the bear paintings, and now it is time to catch her story in words, for the book.
