Selfie

"Self-deceit is a most damaging trait. The remedy, for an artist, is to paint a self portrait."

(Scott Kahn)

"And if what they say is true..if every great painting is really a self portrait..what, if anything, is Fabritius saying about himself?"

(Donna Tartt. The Goldfinch)

Studio

"The modes of expression of men of genius differ as much as their souls, and it is impossible to say that in some among them , drawing and colour are better or worse than others."

(August Rodin)

"If you have an idea, you have to move on it, to make a gesture, drawing is an immediate way of articulating that idea-of making a gesture that is both physical and intellectual."

(Jeff Koons)

Merry Christmas

Thank you all for visiting both the fine line and the studio blogs, have a great Christmas and may the new year bring you all the good things you wish for.

Stratford, Victoria Park and Hampstead Heath

"Hampstead Heath! Glory of London! Where Keats walked and Jarmen fucked, where Orwell exercised his weakened lungs and Constable never failed to find something holy."

(Zadie Smith)

"We have just received intelligence that another child, missed last night, was only discovered late in the morning under a furze bush at Shooters Hill side of Hampstead Heath, which is perhaps less frequented than the other parts. It has the same tiny wound in the throat as been noticed in other cases."

(Bram Stoker. Dracula)

The Gower

"I stayed on the worm from dusk to midnight, sitting on that top grass, frightened to go further because of the rats and because of things I am ashamed to be frightened of."

(Dylan Thomas)

"A great sin can enter through a small door"

(Welsh saying)

Cassis Provence

"He who has seen paris but has not seen cassis can say: I have seen nothing."

(Frederic Mistral)

"Naturally you love Provence, but which Provence?"

(Colette)

Lourmarin and Gordes Provence

"To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant and cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them."

(Pierre-Auguste Renoir)

"If your arteries are good, eat more ice cream, if they are bad, drink more red wine. Proceed thusly."

(Sandra Byrd. Gourmet Magazine)

Roussillon Provence

"Colour is where our brain and the universe come together."

(Paul Cezanne)

"When the good lord begins to doubt the world, he remembers that he created Provence."

(Frederic Mistral)