Notes from an easel-work in progress-the Valley stage one by David Gough

At 34" x 48" this is possibly the largest piece I've painted in some time, and with good reason. Being a practicing artist, it is all too easy to invalidate and dilute your message-the need to be prescient, to be present, to be constantly producing, to be constant, to be commercially viable- all of it can diminish the intent, fog the outcome. Working at this scale immediately removes those pressures, time moving to the clocks hand of drying oils, of bold gestures and minute detail, the focus being the idea over the outcome. It elevates what you are attempting to accomplish, and by its very nature, requires grandiose statements. In that spirit, having only worked the skeleton of the piece-initially with charcoal and then with a wash of oils, I can already sense that this piece is going to be a pinnacle of the series.