linda should be painting

The lovely and helpful Lyall tells me that you can listen to the BBCiplayer anywhere in the world.

So go listen to this.

… is a Radio4 programme that is always excellent.

The format is a group of people that shared a moment in history come back together to talk about what happened.

The host, Sue McGregor isamazing- gentle, but she really gets at the heart of the topic.

Anyways, yesterday’s edition reunited 5 people that were in New Orleans when the levees broke.

Joint Task Force Katrina, General Honore; the manager of the Superdome, Doug Thornton; photojournalist, Ted Jackson; Pastor Willie Walker, and Phyllis Montana-LeBlanc.

I cannot recommend this programme enough.

They brought something to me, that really touched me. They’re all incredibly inspirational, and so open and honest.

And Phyllis Montana-LeBlanc. Well, she’s my new hero.

UK people can listen to it here

I tried to find it on the World Service- but didn’t have any luck… sorry.

… a whispery post.

I have four twentyfive people coming to pick up commissions this weekend, and I am nervous about each some of the paintings for different reasons.

Rather than stab each painting with a paint brush, hard, I thought I might try to voice my little inside voice outloud.

One of the paintings is massive. I’m not sure the commissioner has fully understood how big it is. It is a gift for someone, and I am not sure the recipient will be delighted.

Also, my studio is very narrow. Painting a massive painting necessitates a level of yoga I am not limbo* enough to master.

The next of the paintings was a last minute order. Which is perfectly fine… it just makes me anxious because I already am feeling incompetent. And I wonder if I have got the colors exactly as they want them… if I have understood the brief. If this is actually what they meant. Or if they meant something else.

Then, I have two black and white paintings to do. I have painted in black and white before- but rarely. And, it’s really hard!! There is no room to be seduced by lovely sumptuous colors. No way that the ‘dive straight in and lick your lips’ cherry colored shoes are going to distract you from the (ever so minutely, slightly) crooked lines. Everything has to be right.

Everything is never right in my paintings.

One of the hardest things about commissions, is that I end up trying to second guess the customer… rather than just get on with my job.

If you are coming to collect a painting this weekend… your painting is ready, and beautiful. It’s the other commissions I am having problems with.