
When I open my eyes. Acrylic on prepared board. 50 x 40 cm.
I’ve been thinking of Chaïm Soutine recently and his exciting way with paint. It would be good to get that intensity and life into my work.
To start this artwork I painted the MDF board in thick black acrylic. This first layer was still wet when I started painting and drawing making me fight to get the right marks and colours in place. A restricted palette, three brushes and two pencils were needed. The blue was added near the end.
I wanted to capture a portrait of the model and the whole pose so came up with this composition which has precedent in Diego Velazquez’s work Christ in the house of Martha and Mary; is the reclining figure a painting, or in the same room, or even being imagined like a thought bubble…
Made on a Friday night with top tutor John Close.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaïm_Soutine
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/diego-velazquez-christ-in-the-house-of-martha-and-mary
https://www.johnclosearts.co.uk




Some detail showing the brushstrokes and pencil marks in the wet paint.




Some painted sketches in the big rag paper sketchbook. The last two images are the same page, it’s time to revise dull work, making something a bit more dynamic.



Some images of work form the same model. The last painting is a large oil painting that is proving hard to finish.