Measure canvas using golden ratio

Tape up and paint border

Grate compressed charcoal into carbon dust over canvas on floor

Gently shake the canvas and the dust coalesces

Spray fix

Peel off tape, pin to board and lean it against wall

Sit down, walk around, look at it, walk away, do other stuff, come back, sit down, look at it.

What am i going to do?

I like these shapes – I don’t want to fuck this up

Tension

All I’ve done is mingled some dust together on some canvas with a bit of shaking and a garden broom. Now I’m confronted with this weird landscape. I could do nothing. But i anticipate spreading the paint. I want to see what happens. I want to see what the material has to say.

I ask myself

You’re staring at the horizon

Anticipating cataclysm

Cezannes cataclysm of painting but also cataclysm in general – seeing ones own extinction approaching – a basic psychic fear of the ego being overwhelmed

What does it look like? This Cataclysm on the horizon, appearing from over the edge of the seen

How does the cataclysm appear?

I use the small trowel to apply wedge strips of paint. I’m thinking about the Scylla or the dragon in Jason and the Argonauts. A great monster gradually filling the sky as it nears

But this has three necks three heads

I drop the tracing paper down and begin to spread the paint with the blade

It takes its own shape

When i peel back the paper some of it has bonded with the paint and canvas – good i like that. I like the whole thing. Cataclysm averted. Or achieved