TE15 Lithuanian Honey Cake

Jaroslavas Melnikas

needed in three different places. Mulling over this problem, it suddenly occurred to me that I had been in the studio for about half an hour. And what had I done? That had never happened before. I used to come in and go straight to the easel. Everything had been in the right place – the canvases, the paint, the thinners, the brushes. I just had to pick up a brush and pour out onto the canvas that fleeting feeling, that idea that had excited me and drawn me to the studio in the first place. But now I was surprised to find that I spent my time doing different things, as if I had forgotten the reason I had gone to the studio. That is, I knew why I had gone, I hadn’t forgotten, it was just that I... couldn’t work. Yes, physically. My paint was covered with canvases. I had to put the canvases somewhere. And now I was racking my brain where to put them. I wasn’t thinking about the painting, which was strange. ‘I’ll put the canvases away and start working,’ I told myself. I couldn’t think of any better place to put the canvasses than the same corner they had been in. The only other option was to put them on top of the piano, as I couldn’t stand the idea of them lying on the floor under the piano. Now that I could stand in front of the easel, I went to get the paint. Something was wrong and I couldn’t work out what it was at first. The light was streaming down from the window in the ceiling. I started to mix the colours. No, they were not right. There was no feeling, no mood,

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