A crossroads moment… I’ve attempted to paint only three paintings in my twenty-five years, and give up on those almost as soon as I started. But something’s changed. I’ve drawn from observation more in the last two months than I have in the last five years and now, beyond being addictive, it has me searching for something more, and wanting to put my experiences and images into different mediums. The school doesn’t teach painting, so I’m attempting to teach myself, and hopefully picking some advice from fellow students (and fine painters) along the way. So here it is, first stages of oils based on the basic principles of buying a basic set from Cowling & Wilcox, getting stuck in, slapping paint on, and working from dark to light in building up layers. A little nervous, I’m starting on 8×8” boards in monochrome to keep it simple. More and more inspired by hanging around chefs, these are more characters from another visit to 1 Lombard Street Restaurant. I’m perhaps being too ambitious in working solely from my own sketches. No photographs, just my own memories of the action and atmosphere to fill in the gaps. But personally, I often find too many modern paintings stale when they’re clearly worked from photographs. It’s tricky, but I’m hoping the vivid recollections of the busy kitchen will carry through. I’ll keep you updated…
I agree with you about artwork sometims appearing stale when copied from photographs.
Live sketches every time!!!