#14 / Clementine

I had a tutor at Heatherley’s called Susan Wilson, who during our two or three week long projects would read to us in her gentle Kiwi accent as we painted. A little Don Quixote… some Tolkien, I think we also had a bit of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (much easier going having it read than having to read it oneself!). There was also music and if memory serves me correct, she put a CD of Hawaiian music on... very calming. I heartily subscribe to the idea that listening to something can disengage the analytical part of the brain and free it up to paint more instinctively. Many artists are absolutely against the idea of playing music while you work, but it seems to work for me. So after not listening to anything for the fist thirteen paintings, I put my phone into my studio’s MacGyver speaker system and pressed ‘shuffle’.