I feel like I'm finally turning a corner with the research paper and might have actually identified what exactly it is that Im trying to explore. Finally! It's taken long enough!
I felt like I had been doing a respectable amount of work on it over the summer. I devoured Peter Lanyon's book (as recommended by Neil Bousfield) and almost considered ditching Cezanne in favour of Lanyon at one point, but I felt I'd put so many hours reading into Cezanne that it would be a shame and, now I realise it's the right decision.
I went to Norfolk for 4 days while the children were in Scotland with their Dad and Grandparents (someone has to care for the dog!) and we walked miles and studied hard every day. I felt that I'd read an awful lot about Cezanne and compiled all the relevant parts into a notebook. I knew I was dragging my heels over the 'place' research though. I just didn't seem to be able to find the right angle.
I gave myself permission to put everything down and enjoy a weeks holiday with the family in mid August and rediscovered Jane Austen, sailing and how pleasurable life is without pressure or meal planning. It was the most humungous treat and I haven't felt that relaxed since before children! with two and a half weeks left of the holidays though it felt hard to get back into anything.
My main sticking point was pinning down Neil Bousfield for the interview I needed from him. I finally managed to get a date in the diary and it was great (more on that in another post). I took the children and the dog for an exciting day out in London, which was basically a glorified way for me to collect a pile of books from Chelsea library (more convenient than Kings Cross). Finally I stared pinning down a little more place based research.
I think I have now finally turned a corner and figured out exactly what it is that I'm trying to explore. It's place. It's the difference between making work that depicts a nice scene and making work that is actually about that specific place.
Now all I have to do is turn the incoherent ramblings and pages and pages of notes into something another human might be able to extract some sort of understanding from.
Back to it.....
