HOW I PAINT
If there’s a bit longer, you can start
getting into more of a colour range.
Initially, I’m talking about more colour
in the light. If I’m going to try and
develop more of a range of colours in
the shadows, then the pose needs to
be slightly longer. If it’s less than 20
minutes, there’s not much chance to
explore temperatures in the shadows.
With the colours in the shadows,
I’m often exploring relationships in
response to what I’m seeing in the
model. Let’s say there’s a spot lamp
on the model and it gives a slightly
warm, orange light. That might well
create a coolness in the shadows with
some green-blue things happening.
If that was interesting to me, it might
become a theme of the picture and
I might start pushing that a little bit.
The people who influenced me, like
the Fauve painters Henri Matisse and
André Derain, were using saturated
colours and I incline to that sometimes.
I don’t often go into a picture with
a fixed idea. If I approach it with an
open mind then maybe something in
the subject suggests itself and I get
into that. It’s an important part of my
practice to be sensitive to the subject.
Likeness becomes involved. You can
do a pretty wild painting, but howmuch should it look like the model?
If it doesn’t look like them, is that
a failing? There’s a tension there.DILUTE TO TASTE
Topaz was painted on paper. I tend to
use Daler-Rowney’s Canford or Ingres
papers, they have some good colours.
Certain types of paper are less
suitable for painting on with oils –
watercolour paper tends to be bad –
but then paper can always be primed.
In Topaz, a green line describes
the figure. Sometimes I use charcoal,
but I quite like coloured lines and oil
pastel is goodforthat.THIS IMAGE Topaz, oil
on panel, 55x40cm