As we head towards May, I am thinking about the frequency of posts here. Since re-shaping the website, I have Managed to post each week, with plenty of work to hand; but during the warmer months that is going to reduce…to maybe 10 days or even a bit more. I am stuck indoors through the majority of the winter period, which is why I get quite a bit of Painting done…then I need to get out and around a bit, for both myself and getting new ideas/subjects.

My workspace is in dire need of a purge of all kinds of junk; scrappy bits of paper, cardboard boxes, failed pictures, old jars. It takes time. My thought processes are going through quite a bit of change too. I’ve recently had a period of experimentation, which has been fun and quite satisfying but doesn’t seem likely to lead to new kinds of paintings in any quantity.

It will soon be time for framing. This year I have one or two pastels that are larger than usual, and these cause headaches because of the weight of Glass. I detest acrylic glazing; it is so floppy in its larger sizes, scratches easily and has nothing like the clarity of glass. It would be great to find something that is lightweight but also really clear. If you’re framing a pastel of 18 to 20 inches in length or width, with a mountboard, the final glass size is pretty large and heavy.

An alternative is to use frame-spacers instead of mountboard (and thus the glass required is smaller). I haven’t yet managed to find any that are available to purchase in small volumes, but must keep looking because I think they could be the answer.

The picture above is to be found in the Experimental Methods section. I didn’t measure it, but it is small, around 4 inches by 10 or so. I’ll probably carry on with a few of these, every so often…I have a feeling that the emphasis for painting is heading back to oils, so in the coming weeks we shall see how things go.