Dordogne à Lalinde

I love this river. To spend a day besides her, listening to the water & the birds, smelling the mud & the water calms my tired & overcooked mind.

I went out with a painting buddy of mine, whose company I feel good in when painting alongside each other. He listened to my theatrical conversation about my new ideas, the things I want to paint. etc. I’d had long enough to think about this during the two weeks of exhibiting & welcoming masses & masses of people . Very tiring.

I don’t think the above is a particularly good painting… nor do I think that the previous posting is a bulls-eye ‘bang on the nail’ watercolour either… but there is something humbling as well as regenerative about painting in the plein air. It kind of brings the concentration back to the world in a way that the theoretrical, the conceptual, the photographic, the verbal, the wordy just can’t. It’s good to be reminded of this if nothing else. My friend endured me & painted in silence… and did a much better painting than me.