More about Howard

I’m still thinking about that documentary on Howard Hodgkin we watched on Saturday. Because I’ve interviewed a lot of artists, I’m fascinated by their creative process and how they express their individuality.
Howard, for example, doesn’t like to be filmed while he’s working or to show his paintings in progress, so all the canvases in his white studio were facing the wall. It was more interesting than seeing them because of the mystery of it all. He will spend years working on one painting until he gets it just right. It didn’t appear that he makes sketches or takes notes. In India, he just sat like a Buddha taking everything in.
At one point Howard says painting is a compulsion, and that he finds it too difficult to be liberated by it. This may be because he has so much going on in his mind he never feels that he’s finished, which of course he isn’t.
If you google Howard Hodgkin, you can find some examples of his paintings. To me, they’re Biblical in tone because I feel like I’m looking into some essential truth. But that’s hard to explain when you’re dealing with an abstract painting.
On a non-Howard note, John took some pictures of the shells on our dining room table that were reflected by the TV set., so naturally I had to play with them in Photoshop and give them my own spin…hence this ATC.