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April 20, 2005
Getting you
First thing in a portrait: I try and put the shape down. All important – if the shape, the outline, works then the head is on to a good start. Then I begin to find the form, breaking into the shape to find the way the features are. We’ve all got two eyes, a nose and a mouth, yet we all look remarkably different. Unless you come from the other side of the world, in which case apparently we all look alike [and smell of milk].
So I have to know how to arrange the paint on the surface to make a passing resemblance of an eye or a nose or, most difficult of all: a mouth. But that’s not all, it has to be your eyes, your nose, your mouth. I have to immerse myself in your face. I have to see your features moving, animating, smiling, laughing, talking and just sitting looking at things. I have to try and capture you. Something about your own particular collection of features and expressions that is the you of you.
I can’t just go from A to B with it. I can’t just start at the top of the painting and work my way down to the bottom…da da de dah – there!
It doesn’t work like that. I load the canvas with paint then begin to push the light and dark tones about a bit. Old marks and colours left behind as I add and subtract tones mix with the new marks and the painting starts to come alive. Time is important. Time looking, time painting, not trying to ‘finish’ it, just trying to catch the light before it dashes off.
Posted by john at April 20, 2005 10:49 AM
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