New Painting: Reclining Nude I

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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