Tuesday 15 August 2017

The Painter Pinched Into Action


"Tuesday evening, June 6th 2017

It has been a particularly bad day in the studio, full of painting problems. I retire for a while and, aimlessly it seems at first, reach for a book, although when I settle on Berger’s The Shape of a Pocket, my aimlessness seems to hold the hope of becoming a deliberate action. Normally in such circumstances, I have habitually turned to books about painters to find a way around painting problems, but in recent months it is increasingly the written word- of a novelist, an essayist, or perhaps a short story writer- that has provided me with solace. Berger’s words have very often carried me as a painter, so I remain hopeful, this Tuesday evening, as I decide to turn to ‘A Man with Tousled Hair'."

-excerpt from a paper to be presented at 'John Berger Now' conference at Canterbury Christ Church University, 11th-13th September.