Big studio, small paintings, and breaking my rules

21 February 2024

The studio

I now have a vast space to work in. So, of course, I’m working on small paintings.

Work in progress. Small blue painting with cartoon hand raised.

Work in progress. Small painting with abstract marks and an upside-down gestural portrait of Bono.

I’ve started to experiment with figurative images in my paintings.

The source material for the hand comes from one of the many “eye candy” images I’ve saved. An intuitive choice. It reminds me of a Throwing Muses record cover, which, after a quick Google search, exits only in my imagination!

Photo of Marilyn Munroe, hand against the window of a Palmist’s shop. There’s a cartoon hand painted on the window.

Why figurative images?

To see what might happen, to challenge myself technically, and to break some of my unwritten rules about painting.

I feel uncomfortable using figurative images – I’m uncertain how they’ll be read and what they mean. I want to make paintings where I’ve gotten myself out of the way, allowing the painting to emerge. Works that are, hmmm, authentic. I’m not sure if figurative images allow this (yet). It’s early days; this is new ground that will be unfamiliar. Also, I like a challenge.