Sometimes it’s a Séance

Sometimes it’s a Séance, egg tempera on panel, 30 x 38, January 2025.

I have talked about the alchemy of painting and the ritualistic nature of egg tempera and that it can be slow and meditative or the opposite of that. In the rare event that a painting comes together effortlessly it can seem as though the spirit of a predecessor painter is whispering in one’s ear. Other times, what you are looking at will confound you and, in the end, there is nothing but invention or a radical departure to get you to the other side.

Listening to the voices, hearing the dialogue between your brush and what it is interpreting is exactly that space – like a Ouija board you commune with something, someone, and the pigment, to do something.

Maybe when you are struggling you are finding it difficult to listen, (like the monkey on the upturned vase), or simply can’t hear their voices.