ABOVE Michael, oil
on panel, 55x45cm
OPPOSITE PAGE
Lydia, oil on
canvas, 55x45cm
The outline is
the hardest
thing to place...
I work outward
from inside
of the form
instead
My approach to mark making is
not exactly formulaic, but the general
principles are derived from artists like
Rembrandt and Rubens. There was a
dialogue in their work between thin
and thick paint, and also between
transparency and opacity. Those are
things that I’m really interested in, but
I don’t follow the same rules that they
did. I don’t use the same method of
building up an impasto and letting it
dry and then putting a glaze over the
top. Topaz was done in about 40
minutes so it was all alla prima, none
of it was able to dry before the end.
Some of the lights were created by
the lighter ground coming through the
paint layer: around the chest, a little
bit on the arm, near the shoulder, and
a little bit beneath her arm but above
the shadow on her thigh. But in other
places the light was shown by paint
put on top: on her hips, the deltoid
muscle on her shoulder, her left ear,
and her forehead. This dialogue
between light revealed and lightplaced on top is fun. It gives the
painting a sculptural quality, by which
I mean sometimes the paint comes
towards you and sometimes it comes
away – it gives a sense of movement.
Where you can see the brush
marks coming through, the paint was
pretty dilute. I tend to use odourless
turps, but there might be some linseed
oil in that – it’s about controlling the
viscosity of the paint. Linseed oil will
make it slightly less runny, depending
on the surface. If you’re working on
paper, turps is fine, but if you’re
working on other surfaces, you might
want the paint to be a little bit
gloopier, so it doesn’t run. Damar
varnish dries more quickly so adding
that will shorten the drying time too.TONE AND COLOUR
Finished paintings start in pretty
much the same way as a quicker work
on paper, but they do change a lot.
I try to take the things I like about the
quick ones – the life and vitality – andbring that into more sustained,
ambitious pieces, without losing the
life of it. For the longer paintings
on panel, I will probably give the
background more consideration –
that doesn’t mean necessarily it
will be filled in though.
Nicci is quite a tonal painting, the
colour range is quite restrained in it.
It is important to be very sensitive
about tonal relationships, they are
extremely important. When people
draw, they tend to focus on the
outline first and then fill in tone and
colour. It is the wrong place to start
because the outline is the hardest
thing to place. I work outward from
the inside of the form towards the
outline instead. It actually makes
drawing easier and you’re often more
likely to end up with a result that has
that lively vitality. I do a lot less
measuring than most people do. If the
tone is right, can I push the colour?
I think that’s pretty close to being
true. For me tonality is the foundation
for drawing and colour.
There are certain things that are
important when deciding on a colour
palette. You need to be able to
access the range of the colour
spectrum, so primaries have to be
looked after. After that, it’s about
thinking about what direction
primaries go, so the idea that reds
might tend towards purple or towards
orange, I’d be very aware of that when
choosing my palette. The same for
yellows and blues. Then there’s the
earth pigments which are there really
for the quality of the paint as much as
anything else. I quite like Raw Sienna,
it’s a nothing colour but it’s quite
transparent so you can often get
volume out of it, which is important.