Jigsaw - Sketch and prep.

The aim was to spend all day working, but as usual, being the other half of a busy actress and father to three means certain duties have to be done that cannot be avoided.The main one today was to do the weekly shop. Now I'm usually quite capable at most things,I've a qualification in childcare...I've worked with young people for years, I trained as a nurse and ....well there's one handicap.....I'm a man.Apparently we men can only concentrate on one thing at a time...and even this is distracted by thinking about sex ... according to some sources, that occurs every 15 seconds...(or more often)..but it also means that shopping is a very different exercise when I do it to when Jan does it.....

Now I know what you're thinking...I bet he comes back with a crate of beer,crisps and lots of cake.Well no you naughty thing....I buy meals for the week, cat food,toilet rolls ...salad etc....I'm quite capable.But when I got home today,swaggering like the architypal caveman dragging the limp carcass of a Mamoth into the family cave, I started packing all the things away and I was sure I'd bought more stuff, but where was it?...I must have left it at the check out.So I rang the supermarket and confessed my slip up...but the lady I spoke to was only in an office...so not only had I confessed my stupidity to one lady, I had to be put on hold to tell the lady at 'Customer Services' as well. Sadly she was too busy (servicing customers I presume) so the first lady took my number and assured me that she would ask the lady in customer services to call me. I've no idea if she eventually did, because I had to go off on the school run.

But I sat and applied my colossal brain to what I'd bought...looked in the cupboard and looked at my receipt and guess what?....I'd not forgotten any bags at the shop, the lack of some vital sundries was due to the fact that i'd just forgotten to buy them......I must have been thinking about something else!

What the heck am I going on about?.....this is supposed to be a post about art...aren't I supposed to be the bohemian one...aren't i supposed to lounge about surrounded by naked models offering me absinthe by the bucket load?.....Ladies and gentle men...I give you the reality....'my reality'....and i wouldn't have it any other way.....................well perhaps with just one glass of Absinthe would be nice...but the reality of being an artist and responsible dad is just this.

Oh, i nearly forgot......The pencil work above is the very beginning of my new picture...and after all that talk yesterday of 'Nebulae'....my new picture is given the working title of 'Jigsaw'. Tomorrow I shall start dotting.

Below is my workspace...with blank piece of paper before any work....it was a beautiful morning.