I do love to watch Laurel and Hardy in those old black and white movies but they now come packaged as digitally re-mastered. Don’t you hate that phrase! Most people think it an improvement but I feel the scratches and imperfections gave character to the films. It is as if re-mastering has removed something I was enjoying. The films seem sterile and clinical and they are just not the same any more. Can you imagine in the future they will restore the Mona Lisa with computer controlled paint brushes that will ‘remove’ all the imperfections and re-master the masters great work to a better than original condition. Perish the thought. Don’t think I am against computer generated painting programmes. I have toyed with them myself but I love the imperfection of real painting. I think it’s called the happy accident. You are painting away and it’s not going as you predicted but you begin to notice that in some ways it’s better because it gives to the work a sense of individuality you would not have gained if you had enforced complete control. I err on the side of a bigger accident than most painters do because I paint abstract ‘action’ paintings but the principle still applies. Too much control and it’s sterile and dead or too much accident and it’s lost to the forces of chaos. No matter how you paint or what you paint the craft is a balancing act like walking a tightrope. To get to the other side you must negotiate with the forges of nature to get them to work in your favour. In our case it’s paint and for the tightrope walker it’s gravity. I only wish those who digitally re-master things would learn that lesson.