I enjoy working on short, one or two day paintings, during the creation of my works that can take many months. As well as making sure I have plenty to work on while layers are drying, they are also a great outlet for my natural drive to create. I don’t cope well if I am cut off from creating, and these smaller works are a lifesaver for me while my larger works progress.
In the same way that working out for keeping slim has the added bonus of toning your body, the added bonus of working on one-session paintings is that it keeps me exploring new ideas, and refining my skills. Artists are perpetual students. We are curious and restless, driven to explore and improve our chosen mode of expression. Each painting is a link in a chain to the next one, and from the previous one, even if the subject matter or style seems at a cursory glance to be unrelated. While a particular artwork may be viewed as an item alone, an artist’s body of work exists as a continuum.
This is an iPhone snap of my completed portrait, after the second session. This has been an exercise in high-key flesh against a dark background, within a more unusual composition. I wanted to explore how dazzling you can make skin, before you lose the ‘color’ of the natural flesh.
