Tuesday, January 4, 2011

What I did on my holidays

A couple of years ago, check further down this blog, I attempted to pick up where three years at art school failed - I tried oil painting. I spent the two weeks of the Christmas holiday 2008 getting to grips with oils, mediums (media?), surfaces etc. Suffice to say I made a few mistakes. However the veil of mystery fell away from my eyes and the belief that everything oily was alchemy and guaranteed to confound me was gone. Last Christmas, I did a little exploratory painting too. So, this year, using the excuse that it was now a tradition, I flung myself into painting.
You might recall a project I mentioned a while ago where I simply had to paint an image I'd seen by the French photographer Virginie Dubois. I'd been working on the final piece a couple of times towards the end of last year. Well, I finally nailed it on Boxing Day.
I'm pleased with the result. This is the biggest oil painting I've ever undertaken - it could be argued that it's the first proper painting since everything before it started out as simple sketches or exercises.
I deliberately avoided any mediums and all paint was mixed straight from the tube with no oils or accelerators or chemical jiggery pokery. The paint is quite thick, so I expect it to take a good six months to a year to dry enough for me to varnish it. Until then, it's a devil to photograph. Here's my attempt to do just that.


'Bere' Approx 900mm x 600mm.

As soon as I'd put this piece to bed, I sped on with another and have managed to take it pretty close to completion before having to get on with regular work. I'll hopefully have that finished fairly soon and I'll show you when I'm done.