From my blog:
A year or three ago John Saxon, a chum from the Thorn cycling forum, published a photo of the backyard of his friends from just over the mountain where I was born, the mountain separating the two towns strikingly prominent in his photo. I promised to paint the scene but, when eventually I finished the painting, it was wretched, not fit for consumption by man or beast. If you think I'm joking, even my cat sneered at it. I've earned my living in the arts for too long to be sensitive to the vagaries of critics and, having been a critic myself, am only too familiar with the constant struggle to keep criticism pure from contamination by external considerations. But my cat keeps my knees warm in the winter, which no critic has yet offered to do, so I pay close attention to her opinion. Between my cat and I we buried that painting.
All the same, not wanting to offer John an explanation that starts, "My cat and I..." in the tones of Her Majesty's Yule tidings from herself and her Corgis, I was glad when he published another inspiring photograph, albeit from another hemisphere and a different continent.
John's first photo and my discarded painting are of the Karroo at Prince Albert in South Africa, the Karroo being a semi-desert area though John's friends live in a charming green spot on a river. John's second photograph is of the Bay of Quinte in Ontario, Canada, an entirely different milieu. Not that either painting is representational, because I can't be bothered with those when a superior camera fits in your shirt pocket and adds only a few grammes to your cycling paraphernalia.
As you can see, it's the inspiration that counts, with the two images serendipitously influencing the final outcome.
(https://i1.wp.com/coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/andre_jute_early_morning_mist_over_bay_of_quinte_wcg_8oct17_800pxw.jpg?w=800)
Andre Jute: Early morning mist over Bay of Quinte, watercolour and gouache on grey Ingres paper, A4, 2017
There's more about this painting on my blog (http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/andre-jute-early-morning-mist-bay-quinte-watercolour-gouache).