Thanks for the great comments about my work. I googled Chris Duffy… very interesting work. His stuff is quite erotic I think as opposed to sensual. It certainly pushes the boundaries of human expression and is cleverly done.

My aim here was a little different. I wanted to keep it nice… to honour the beauty of the human female form without placing it into any sort of implied or perceived exploitative context. Hence the plain white ground.

So often the female form is depicted in a way which sells our gender short I think. I wanted it to be different. Clean simple straight-forward… unadorned. The beauty of the form in it’s purest sense… in an almost architectural way [but with deep heartfelt meaning]

And without suggesting anything more… nor less. I hope I pulled it off. Something in my heart tells me I might have and for that I am both pleased and grateful [to the source!]

My point, clumsily articulated, was that too much late 20th century modernist and post-modernist painters gained attention because their canvases were huge, disguising the fact that it wasn’t (isn’t?) very good or interesting. Not that a lot of them weren’t capable of doing better, just that they found a quick and dirty way to cash in on a trend. It was Andrew Wyeth who once said, “abstract art is made by the inept and sold to the ignorant by the unscrupulous.” I’m saying that while lots of people were taking up abstraction, the ones who gained attention and financial success were the ones who were doing it in a huge format.

And of course… with the miracle of modern reproduction processes works on paper can now be reproduced on gallery wrapped canvas and hung in any size… and any configuration I guess. And for a very large wall… a triptych would certainly work for these. Good thinking 99! Grin.

Re large or small. Artists working large especially on a rigid support that can’t be rolled… are I think duty bound (to try at least) to create something extraordinary.

I don’t know why it bothers me so much. Probably because I’ve done it myself [we probably all have]… produced really ordinary stuff and wondered what the heck to do with it. My solution? Burn it LOL before someone gets hold of it and does something really stupid with it like put it in a retrospective somewhere after we’re dead (((chuckles)))] And this does happen.

But honestly what on earth is the world going to do with all the ho hum art that’s being produced… especially these days when almost everyone’s doing it… and not always all that well.

At least works on paper and canvas can be rolled or shelved flat and out of the way until someone decides it’s time to dispose of them. But huge art lacking insight and inspiration has to be stored somewhere… god help us that it should be stored on walls! LOL

I know what you mean about not being able to think with too much “incoming”. But when painting I seem to need the music now more so than ever. The MusoMagic workshop really reinforced that as well… and reminded me of how important music really is to me. I had almost forgotten. I’ve had music with me all my life but somehow forgot (at least to some extent) the joy of actually making it. I’m not in a situation to make it quite yet… but surrounding myself with people who do is probably the next best thing… even if it is long distance and sometimes even over the net! LOL

Your LA panorama sounds magnificent… and as a triptych 10 x 20 sounds just about the right size to me. Any bigger and I’d imagine it would take too long and lose some of the spontaneity in the detail. What a great project! I’m looking forward to hearing all about it… and watching progress even [especially] from way over here.

Re working larger. I’ve been working larger mainly because I love to let the washes flow and of course over a bigger area you can really do that. There’s a lovely freedom [albeit a controlled one] in large fluid washes… [as you already no doubt know so forgive me preaching to the converted! LOL]

I do think however… that a lot of the time bigger isn’t always better. It’s just bigger. And with a very great majority of art out there being IMHO less than brilliant… perhaps it would be wise for artists to be prudent about size unless they can assure the art world that the large work they are about to embark upon is actually going to ADD something to the already large body of work out there in the world today. Better a small piece that speaks volumes than a large piece that screams ordinary. But maybe that’s just me.