16 artistApril 2016 http://www.painters-online.co.uk
leisure, they are in no hurry to get up and go on. They
remain suspended in their thoughts, taking their time to
confront, for once, their existential burden.Preparation
For these paintings I sketched my ideas and possible
compositions first. Thereafter I used a camera to capture all
the elements I required to compose the final images. Each
of the paintings needed to have strong direct sunlight, a
very low point of view close to the ground, and to capture
the awkward and uncomfortable position of a fallen body.
Moreover, it was not possible to find the perfect settings for
the characters and, because the models could not pose in
certain places, I had to rely on photographs. For these
reasons photography, if used with a clear idea about what
you want to achieve, is an invaluable tool with which to
enhance creativity and go beyond the limitations of
experienced reality.
The models are friends or acquaintances. Some of the
images were inspired by my knowledge of their real life
experiences, in other images they were simply acting therole I assigned to them. Normally I prepare a shoot by
showing the models my sketches and explaining exactly
what I want them to do or to express. For this project I
generally had to pose them in a different space from the one
that I was going to paint, so had to decide the direction of
the light and the point of view in advance, to keep them
consistent throughout all the reference material.
I used Photoshop to take the elements that I needed from
my reference photographs and collage them together into a
new image that would serve as a draft for the painting. To
transfer the final composite image I first divided the canvas
into four sections and then drew with a medium size flat
brush, which avoids precision. The scarcity of measuring
information allowed me more freedom to interpret the
forms. It is during the painting process that I define forms
and proportions alla prima, wet-on-wet. I also interpret
colours freely for more lively and interesting results.‘We have all experienced, at
some time or other, how a
sudden traumatic event can
appear to halt the inexorability
of time and create a vacuum for
reflection and self-analysis’
The Fall – Lady with Flowers, oil on linen, 25^1 ⁄ 2 333 ⁄ 4 in (65 85cm).
I asked Helen, a long-time friend, to pose like this for me. I had been
thinking about how it would feel to bear the weight of a life-time of
experience that has not always been full of happiness. As with the
other paintings, the focus of interest is in the face. The lady falls,
scattering her flowers. She is not hurt by the fall, but by the sudden
revelation of the weight of her burden