Joya: AiR / Gill Ord / UK
"Here in Spain I’m aware of the gap between the idea and the reality of having all day to look and paint. In between action there is time to think, locate, be anxious about the right way to spend the time.
Sitting in the shade, looking out at the sunlight, sitting with the sun on your face. Walking in the dusty desert landscape, getting spiked by hardy aromatic plants adapted to the environment.
Snoozing with patches of sunlight on the duvet. Reading to enlighten, focus, escape.
Thinking of Thomas Jones in Italy, painting the light, and of Agnes Martin working in the studio, back to the window.
Is there a right way to go about this, how is time best spent, how to be porous, yet resilient and robust.
I’ve been moving between a boulder in front of a wall and the Studio (not a rock and a hard place). Outside I’m exposed to the sun, at times it’s windy (stones in my pallets, to hold them down) the silence, isn’t, there’s bugs, and birdsong, the wind turbine, fighter jets. But mostly there is a stillness and it feels nourishing, slowing down the senses".
Gill Ord