Figures

New Painting: Reclining Nude I

Reclining-Nude-I-scaled
Reclining Nude I
Reclining Nude I

This is a nude, painted in acrylic on canvas board. It’s painted in a harmonious palette in a style which seeks to emphasize the planes of the figure in space, as well as the interlocking shapes between the planes.

It’s based on a previous painting, Serenity. I was inspired to try another approach to this subject by my ongoing reading into Colour Theory, and particularly, by Josef Alber’s book “Interaction of Colour”.

This painting is part of a developing series in which, once again, I’m seeking to investigate and understand how to use those – notionally ‘simple’ – colour dimensions of hue, value and saturation so as to encourage the viewer to confront the contradictions inherent in representing a 3 dimensional subject on a 2 dimensional surface.

If the viewer is made to feel that the image portrayed is oscillating between abstraction and figuration, whereby, one minute a particular bounded plane is simply an abstract flat colour shape, then the next is recognisable as a foreshortened thigh projecting into space, then this painting will have achieved its objective.

I’d be very interested to hear your opinion as to whether or not you think this approach has been successful, so please don’t hesitate to drop me a line with your thoughts!

Dimensions: 50cm x 70cm, supplied unframed.

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New Painting: The Sculpture Garden

The-Sculpture-Garden-lrg-scaled
The Sculpture Garden

This painting was inspired by a life drawing class in the sculpture garden of the Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead, on a beautifully sunny July day this year. It’s painted on canvas board and is supplied unframed.

Its conception is based on a number of books about colour theory I’m reading which have led me to become obsessed with the ‘interaction of colours’. Furthermore, in recent work, I’ve also been focussing on accentuating the abstract planes ‘of’, as well as the interlocking shapes ‘between’, things, rather than just on the things themselves, so this painting is an attempt to further investigate those two, fundamental, topics of colour and shape.

By painting flat areas of colour that, of themselves, are simply abstract jigsaw pieces, but which together, can be interpreted as recognisable objects, the purpose of this painting is to encourage the viewer to go beyond passively viewing what, at first glance, is a calm and serene subject, in order to actively confront the contradictions between the flatness of the picture surface and the coloured shapes, compared with the three dimensionality of the image being portrayed.

In Douglas Cooper’s (1970 p.33) book, “The Cubist Epoch”, we read that Picasso said of his own pre-Cubist painting entitled ‘Dance of the Veils (Nude with Drapes)’, 1907, that it should be possible to “‘cut up’ his canvas and having reassembled it ‘according to the colour indications… find oneself confronted with a sculpture.'”

‘The Sculpture Garden’, is a first, crude, attempt to pay homage to that ambition.

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More Pictures added to the Figures Gallery

Reclining-Male-Figure

The following life drawing class figure studies (and one worked up image) have been added to the Figures gallery. More figure studies are available on my Blog, although many of them are experiments, so please be warned that the quality is rather mixed and some of them are downright terrible…

Reclining Male Figure
Reclining Male Figure

Abstracted Figure
Abstracted Figure

Annabel
Annabel

Seated Figure
Seated Figure

Seated Male Figure
Seated Male Figure

Seated Figure in a Garden
Seated Figure in a Garden

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Island Art Group Exhibition at the David Hughes Centre, Beaumaris

Still-Life-with-Oranges-and-Lemon

Just to mention that the Island Art Group Exhibition starts tomorrow Saturday 27th May 2017. It’s being held at the David Hughes Centre, Beaumaris and is open between 10am and 5pm ending Friday 9th June.

There’s a great selection of work on display from members of the group, including the following 5 pieces by me, so why not drop in and have a look if you’re in the area?

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Exhibition of Work at the Roadking Truckstop Cafe, Holyhead

roadkingtruckstopexhibition

Thanks to a very generous invitation from Stuart Burne (seen in the photo below with 3 of the pieces) and the kind folks at the Roadking Truckstop Cafe in Holyhead, the following 5 pieces of work are on display for public viewing for the next couple of months, so why not drop in and have a look if you’re in the area? More details of the pieces can be seen in my shop as well as in any related articles at the bottom of this post.

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