Wednesday 29 September 2010

Some you win, some you lose!

I gave up on translating the second drama (s. earlier post). The deeper I got into it, the more I realized that the German sense of humour is basically as untranslatable as it can get. The play is funny and even witty in German, but uncouth, wordy and slow-moving in English. So I shall let those sleeping dogs lie and look for some other writing project when I have time. And that won't be for months as I have translating work to keep me busy until about Christmas (and that's an optimistic estimate!).

I joined a twice a month Saturday painting group, but have since unjoined (ha! another word that doesn't exist as far as I know, but is needed here). The problem is that the course was not keeping its word. If a romp through various techniques is promised, I don't expect to have to do portrait drawing at every session all the time (which according to the woman teaching would "free me", but actually made me absolutely furious, mostly with myself for my own lack of skill). I left the third session because I was bored silly and frustrated after a futile discussion with the woman in charge, who tried to equate singing a scale with drawing a portrait. Not wanting a showdown about her ignorance on the subject of singing, I was glad to have the "freedom" of leaving. I doubt whether I shall go there again, though I'll have to pay till the end of the year. There are so many nice things to do in painting for which I do have a little talent that it seems a bit futile to do a basic course (I didn't ask for) on something for which I have little or no talent or inclination.

And of course, singing something in  the classical repertoire becomes a realistic possibility only after years of specialist vocal exercises tailor-made for the voice in hand. But why discuss this with someone who thinks one can draw a head with only minimum instruction and no time to practise the elements involved? No singer can bypass the elements of vocal training!

So that's the end of workshops for me. I vow not to even read about them any more. I'm happier doing my own thing and since I'm not ambitious enough or young enough to want to make anything of painting beyond enjoying it, I'm back in my studio messing around. Sometimes good things emerge. I'm recycling some old canvases that are either not finished or not good. That will keep me supplied with empty spaces for a while! Maybe I'll paint some more Cézannes...


This is years old and unfortunately shiny because the oil was still wet when I took the photo with my first digital camera, which did not offer much in the way of widgets. 


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