It seems to be a time of revision. Picked this up today and found revising the drawing of the group on the left immensely satisfying. They have a bit more weight, better attitudes. I’m happy about it.
I wasn’t happy with the last iteration of this so am trying to salvage it. Often its not worth trying to save a bad painting but sometimes it is, and for whatever reason I thought this was worth another go. I’ve always liked the subject and the setup but never resolved the treatment or the drawing. There was too much in some areas too little in others. The surface was pretty dull. It’s better now I think, an interesting crunchy surface, the woman is a little more resolved. I think I know what I’m doing with it now. Good Good.
I’ve been laying on the white, trying again to dry out the imagery and remove the drama. I don’t know if deadpan and lightweight are are good goals but they’re the ones I’m targeting!
I’ve been fiddling with this. Its like a battle between lines and tone. I like lines (especially black ones) and I like tone, they describe different things and operate according to different rules but it can be good, I think, when they jostle together in the one painting. In the fullness of time one of them might win out, we’ll see.
I’ve worked my way over this many times in an attempt to slow it down and and dry the imagery out. Not unhappy to have done so as in the flesh it has a surface, built from many layers of paint, that has grain and shimmers a little. But this is it. Finished and time to move on.
Painting up a drawing of a couple of weeks ago. I realised as I was painting it that it was quite an appropriate image to be doing on good friday.,,