Oh To Be Left Alone

I've many faults but they're compensated for in one positive trait - being content with my own company. I've rarely found anyone who's company is better than my own. To be left alone is a big boon for me. People need seeing to, replying to, subjugating to, worrying about, entertaining, fussing over, giving up time to.. Oh, people only in small doses please.

I thought I'd do an oil painting relating to the above, a simply thing on an A3 cheap canvas from Poundland. Here it is - a woman sat outside enjoying her own company and feeling supremely comfortable with herself. I got this idea from a woman I observed in Cornwall. I was on a coach tour down there and we had a few hours in various idyllic coves and beaches. Strolling around St Ives I spotted a portly woman sat on a bench and sat on a low wall nearby and observed her for fifteen minutes. She was enjoying the beach but, more than that, she seemed self-possessed, self-contained, self-knowledgeable.

I thought I'd paint her though I wasn't sure where to start. I thought she'd be outdoors watching nature - big hat, a table, a drink. After that the sky was soon filled. I'd was doing another painting and had mixed far too much paint and used it to fill the sky. Using few hushed colours I soon painted in a nice dress, a wicker chair and the sun catching the hat. It seemed to paint itself. What should I put on the skyline? I wasn't sure but didn't want anything manufactured. A few trees appeared but didn't look right so I put trees in front of them and repeated this bringing the trees forward until the view looked reasonable.

That woman looks content with herself. I observe folk enjoying their surroundings and you can easily tell which folk are at home with their own company, seem rested (even serene.) Others seem fidgety and unable to lose themselves in what orbits them. Why aren't more people content being alone? Don't they have engaging hobbies? Don't they get bored with people's company as quickly as I do?

This was done on an A3 canvas using about four colours. Unsure what to put in the background I tickled in a few trees and then a few more. I added a church in the distance but the spire went wrong so I obliterated it with more trees. Instinctively you know when you can't go any further and sudden it was complete. Normally this would be £40 but I'm afraid it's £40,000. I was out driving and decided to eat a huge Easter Egg. Chomping through one end of it and it got me remembering how as a lad I would licked out a Cadbury's Creme Egg and make a helmet for my Action Man. I ate a hole big enough to put my head inside the egg. Unfortunately I lost my concentration, crashed into a restored Mini Cooper 1960 and now owe the owner £40,000 for serious repairs.

Maria doesn't seem to like this one....