IN THE MAKING: Freedom and analysis

Thursday, 13 April 2017

Freedom and analysis

I want to explore more of the free approach to painting that I experienced in Pauline Agnew's e-course. I worked for months on this garden subject and know its colours and compositions well, so I did a colour sample of the colours, then went "free" with the resulting selection. I thoroughly enjoyed this moment of spontaneity and freedom, and yet felt a bit lost because although it feels natural to me it is so different from the analytic and slow process of learning to paint. The latter often produces good results.. eventually. And I learn a lot, particularly the necessity of really engaging with a painting with all the despair that can entail.

So today I returned again to observational work, currently a self portrait (more struggle here!), but then suddenly saw a figure in the one of the little free pieces I did yesterday.
So I started to introduce it into the painting. This is good because the energy is already there. Also I think I realise what Pauline Agnew means by the background and the figure being one.

So what works for me at present is to stick with the painstaking observational work and studies of anatomy, but also to have some joyous playtime which brings together the figure and elements of colour. These different processes can mesh, and provide a way of taking my painting into a new place.....