Since lockdown I have been unable to access our degree studio, so small has been the way to go for all my paintings. Which is a bit of a shocker as I have spent 4 years going for bigger and bigger canvases! It reminds me of my first painterly doodles in 2010 before I even thought I could draw or considered myself an 'Artist'.
Portraiture and Life drawing have been a fabulous resource for practice and for gathering mark making memories for my brain's bank. I have always loved contour and gestural drawings and in the past few days I've been drawing anything I can get my hands on. This includes self portraits and nature.
Then all of a sudden I felt the impulse to paint a face. Here is the surprising result.
As I favour process over outcome, I think looking at it now as it is completed, it could look like a reflection of the past 12 weeks. I picked soothing colours, and in the end the figure looks quite anxious. We have all been, and are still on the roller-coaster of lockdown. At times I have felt part of the four walls around me, as if blended into my surroundings. I had no idea at the beginning of this process of how or what would appear and what the meaning might be. I am hoping you will see what they see in it, and that it resonates in someway.
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