Dancing with the Devil

I have to admit today's posting is not what I'd call an original idea. I was reading Moonlight and Hares lovely artwork blog and she recalled how a painting which she began in 2009, had finally been completed. Her study of a woman had radically changed into one with a marine feel with the woman being possibly a selkie (a seal which can shed its skin and become a human).

And this got me thinking of why and more importantly how paintings happen. I just don't know. I don't paint as much as I did since moving house as I had to leave my outside studio (okay shed) there, which seemed to be a very creative place for me to work. My current workspace is the third bedroom, which while okay isn't such a creative force. But I used to go into the old studio, pull out a canvass and quietly sit. I'd then suddenly begin working. I never planned anything or spent weeks researching. I just let my mind unburden itself. Psychiatrists take note ha ha ! I have never understood where my ideas come from, they just arrive and I have to work at breakneck speed to get the creative idea out on the canvass before it disappeared.

Reading Moonlight and Hares blog took me back to 4 years or so when I found I became obsessed with the lyrics of a Jethro Tull song, Kelpie. The lyrics are here.

There was a warm wind with the high tide
On the south of the hill.
When a young girl went a-walking
And I followed with a will.
``good day to you, my fine young lady
With your lips so sweetly full.
May I help you comb your long hair ---
Sweep it from that brow so cool? ’’
Up, ride with the kelpie.
I’ll steal your soul to the deep.
If you don’t ride with me while the devil’s free
I’ll ride with somebody else.
Well I’m a man when I’m feeling
The urge to step ashore.
So I may charm you --- not alarm you.
Tell you all fine things, and more.
Up, ride with the kelpie.
I’ll steal your soul to the deep.
If you don’t ride with me while the devil’s free
I’ll ride with somebody else.
Say goodbye to all your dear kin ---
For they hate to see you go
In your young prime, to this place of mine
In the still loch far below.
Up, ride with the kelpie.
I’ll steal your soul to the deep.
If you don’t ride with me while the devil’s free
I’ll ride with somebody else.

In particular it was chorus line "If you don’t ride with me while the devil’s free, I’ll ride with somebody else." This lyric went round and round my head for days and days. I kept playing the tune over and over again. I had become obsessed with it. Then one day I got down a 4 foot x 3 foot canvass, put the CD on repeat and began. Using acrylic paint squirted directly onto the canvass and using only rubber rollers to mix and apply the medium, I ended up with this painting, which was completed in about 20 minutes (sadly this old photo doesn't do it justice, I may try and take new photos over the weekend).

It's called "Dance with the Devil" and I still absolutely love it. I have no idea what it is all about, what its meaning is and I don't mind that. It can be anything it wants to be as it was just the outpourings of a manic 20 minute creative outburst. I often get this painting out and look at it, close to the lovely marbling of the paint is a joy to view (something that mixing paint on a canvass with rollers can do) and to be honest I have absolutely no recollection of how I painted it, or why.

I appreciate everyone may not like it. All I know is I painted it, it recorded a moment in time and and I'm glad I did as it gives me great pleasure.