"Tuesday evening, June 6th
2017
It has been a particularly bad
day in the studio, full of painting problems. I retire for a while and,
aimlessly it seems at first, reach for a book, although when I settle on
Berger’s The Shape of a Pocket, my aimlessness seems to hold the hope of
becoming a deliberate action. Normally in such circumstances, I have habitually
turned to books about painters to find a way around painting problems, but in
recent months it is increasingly the written word- of a novelist, an essayist, or
perhaps a short story writer- that has provided me with solace. Berger’s words
have very often carried me as a painter, so I remain hopeful, this Tuesday
evening, as I decide to turn to ‘A Man with Tousled Hair'."
-excerpt from a paper to be presented at 'John Berger Now' conference at Canterbury Christ Church University, 11th-13th September.
