False Light

In 2014 I did a short painting course at the Slade in London. I explored some ideas in black and white on brown paper. I asked a fellow student to model in the dark with her phone and painted this little sketch,

Hue, me?

I started this painting as a reflection (ha!) on self portraiture. At the centre is a mirror on an easel, on the left an indistinct completed portrait of me as a child and then the foreground figure which represents me. I experimented with various depictions – beautified, realistic, derogatory and have now settled on this…

Fish oils

Playing with oil paint, to depict two fish and a lemon

Pail fire

First version Experimenting with oil paint, a first pass at a bucket on a paint marked floor.

Self paw-trait

‘Mirrors and copulation are abominable because they increase the numbers of men’ Borges. I painted two self portraits last night. One using finger painting – which I don’t think I’ve done since I was a child – and the other using brushes: Finger painting on left. Brush work on right

Striking

Here’s an A2 acrylic painting in progress that emerged over a couple of hours. From an exercise that involved looking at matchboxes for inspiration. Somewhat broad, but there might be something ‘striking’ there.

Wasteland

A painting in progress, though how far is hard to say.

Hallomeen

I hate my stupid face. And I love it, and I hate it. What is a self portrait: An act of vanity, fantasy, of self-loathing? All? None? How can we even paint ourselves when we don’t even see ourselves as others do? Or how can we represent ourselves when so much of our selves is…

Lost and found

   I remember now that she was sat opposite me and I hastily drew this sketch of her in ink as we conversed. Then sometime later I took a photo of the sketch as it lay on my table, with my notebook alongside it, and used the SketchPad app to scratch in somedefining  light and…

Acid reflux

This is my first attempt at aquatint, which is a process where you erode an etching using different amounts of time immersing it in acid, while protecting elements you want to remain untouched with painted on varnish. You also cover the etching in a fine dust of particles for further texture and definition.  It’s a…