CAN PAINTERS CHOKE?

Choking is a well known phenomenon among sports stars. They become so good at something it becomes second nature. Then a 'big match' comes along. They think too hard and it all falls apart! Matthew Syed, the English table tennis champion devotes a whole chapter to it in his book 'Bounce'. Anyway, the relevance of this is my first 'group session' of life painting at the weekend. I was in a room full of 10 artists, some of them very good... and it went rather pear shaped for me... literally! So I went into the studio today and knocked up a few self portraits, just to make sure I hadn't totally lost it. I quite like their sketchy qualities. At least I don't look like a pear!