Untitled (Ocean Park) 1971

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A particularly busy week: IB orals, Parent Teacher Conference, an evening lecture at ULB & dinner afterwards, the open exhibition ... & so it goes.

In between times I've been really enjoying ...

... a sumptuous book on Richard Diebenkorn (especially the charcoal drawings and smaller collage pieces - the cigar boxes are great, too).

Untitled 1985

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& here's Diebenkorn's Notes to myself on beginning a painting:

1. attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.

2. The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued - except as a stimulus for further moves.

3. Do search. But in order to find other than what is searched for.

4. Use and respond to initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.

5. Dont "discover" a subject - of any kind.

6. Somehow don't be bored - but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential.

7. Mistakes can't be erased but they move you from your present position.

8. Keep thinking about Polyanna.

9. Tolerate chaos.

10. Be careful only in a perverse way.

("Polyanna"? Not Pollyanna I notice ... I'm not sure what he means by this ... other than an eternal optimism?)

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... & a double CD collection of Francoise Hardy songs that we've had lying around the house for years and only now seems essential listening (Trish Keenan again, I'm afraid). Post-Broadcast, Hardy's voice & backings acquire a whole other set of resonances. The very cheesiness of French pop becomes interesting. (Who'd have thought it?)

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... & dinner on Wednesday night with Hermione Lee (biographer of V. Woolf among others). We chat about H.D., Stein & Edith Wharton. She then tips me off about Sherwood Anderson - someone I've never investigated - and Winesburg, Ohio. So I'll have to order a copy and have a look.

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... & making an effort after much prevarication and deciding to collect together the little I have done since last May for the school show. The vernissage was yesterday evening but I couldn't go. I'll take some pictures on Monday and put them up.

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2:47 pm ... so about an hour and a quarter to kick-off. Wales' chance to win the Grand Slam. Given France's lackluster performance last week I reckon they've got a pretty good chance ... but who knows what bizarre decisions a referee might have up his sleeve? Remember the World Cup?