Seeing Double

Well the snow's been useful - it means I can stay in and paint! I've been working on the second, proper painting, of "Living Flame". My spiritual healer friend thought it a big task, and asked me if I'd have problems painting it a second time, and I replied that I doubted it. If I've done it once, I can do it again! So, instead of showing you the painting, I'll show you the two together, so you can see what I'm talking about, and compare them. The "proper" version is as close as I can make it to the original "working painting". They are both in acrylics - used in the style of thin watercolours - but the original is on acrylic board whereas the proper version is on watercolour paper, as it was decided that to frame it, some of the image would be lost under the mount, and if I painted a larger border of background around it, then that could be "lost" under the mount without detracting from the image. Its a good idea to do that, anyway, as its a large image (20 x 16 inches) and since its on watercolour paper, the framer will want as much paper as possible to be able to hide behind the mount and stop the paper buckling.

Its not often I paint a picture twice - I usually get bored - but this painting has been a pleasure to paint a second time, to capture the light, the colour, the line, and tone. And I think she's beautiful, this living flame........

Living Flame

Ok, so no one was interested in the art auction! :) Well it was still worth running it to see if anyone was.


Never mind, I've been busy with other work this week....


I was asked a few weeks ago by a woman, to do a painting in the abstract style of the Fantasy Fannies, but of a virtually whole woman taken from a black and white photo that I was sent, and also the colours were to be in pastel colours, plus she wanted a hidden woman within the image like the Queyntes have.. MMmm.... it took me a while to get into the idea of how to do it. Because the Fantasy Fannies are created from close up photos so the shapes look abstract to start with, whereas this image was most definitely a woman, a gorgeous sexy woman, and the image of her wasn't to be hidden, it was to be kept. So I drew it out as it was from the photo, and then started playing with the colours. Normally I paint bright and dramatic paintings, but I had been asked specifically for pastel colours. So I had to tone down my natural exuberance, and paint subtle colours in a subtle way. The elbow length gloves, hair and panties were all very dark in the photo and I would have normally have painted them black, but decided to make my darkest darks "royal purple" and then that being only the colour of the hair, gloves and the dark shadow between the luscious buttocks. There was a gorgeous white light down the side of the body, coming from a side light in the photo, and for me that was incredibly important to keep, as it accentuated the shape, and added interest to the otherwise symmetrical shape. So, bit by bit, I built up the colours, and shades, using "glazing" as the technique for building up the subtle colours, the colour underneath shining through the colour on top, and adding to the description of the small nuances of muscle tone and body shape. And the strength of colour in the background that made the image look like she was standing separate from the background. I also decided that if I made the woman logo within her any smaller it would have looked like a tattoo which would have spoilt the effect. When I got to the point that this picture is at, I stopped, and thought that I could go on, and do more, but to do so would detract from the pastel colours and the way the white of the paper shines through the paint. So I contacted the woman who had commissioned me, showed her this image and asked her what she thought - and she loved it! She thought the image looked powerful, feminine and sensuous all at once. She loved it as much as I do, fortunately! For me, I love the 3-D shape of the body, and the way the background seems to flow around her like a flame - and this prompted me to call the painting "Living Flame" because it shows the woman as a vibrant, vivid, vital and sensuous woman, with the almost chameleon like effect of being able to cope with her life and the challenges it brings within it.


My spiritual healer friend saw this finished painting the other day and commented that the photo I was working from was excellent quality, infact a beautiful piece of art on its own, BUT that I had taken that image and made something even more beautiful with my colours and depiction of the woman within the painting. I agree with her. This woman is gorgeous.


But all of this is actually the "working painting" - so now I have to re-paint it in the same way but on watercolour paper, with a slightly larger background to it that will give the framer chance to frame it without losing any of these beautiful colours under the mount. At least the second painting will be a lot quicker to do than the first one - because I'm just copying it, whereas the first painting had a lot of "thinking time" in its creation.