Figure in Movement
 

I was updating my website and found an image of this painting which I had forgotten about. It is an older sold work which won an honourable mention in a well-regarded show. It is oil on board and about 20" x 24".

Thomasin,

I liked this instantly the moment I saw it on your site. The modelling of the head is exquisite, as usual, the astute use of blues/cool greys in the flesh tones is also very masterful. The cropping of the figure in the way that you did adds to the feeling of fleeting movement and the repetition of certain lines and edges remind me of some of Velazquez mature pieces wherein he also resorted to this device to suggest ephimeral movement.
Such maturity for an earlier work! I

Thomasin, I admire your work tremendously. You have expressed so well the flexing of shoulder, arm, and breast muscles that happens when someone is in the act of reaching, lifting or dancing. It's fascinating to stare at. I also like the way the background envelops the figure and could be, in a way, figure rater than ground. In each painting you do, you seem to explore this ambiguity in different ways. Thanks for posting this.

Thank-you Carlos. I had been working in a well-known Seattle gallery for a time and had seen figurative works there like Susan Lyon's, Scott Burdick's, Joseph Lorusso, Pino and others. They were quite unlike the figurative work I knew in South Africa, and although I didn't completely like their work I was impressed by their abilities. This is a response to those influences (although it doesn't look much like their work really).

Sharon, thank-you too. I really value whatever you say, and that you say anything at all about my work. Please repeat at will. (I wish I had another set of words for "thank-you - it is most appreciated")

Thank-you very much, Alex. I tend to need to make the background flesh-like, even when it is not the colour of flesh (as in my current paintings). Perhaps it is because of my extreme limitations that the only real subject for me is the form of the human body, and everything tends to turn into that. That is why the faces for me, especially the eyes and the mouth, which are really difficult to see in terms of tone and form, take so long to get right, and that is why the background, when it is most honestly my own work looks flesh-like too.

Ditto.

Thomasin,

I come late to this post but I have to totally agree with what Carlos said. Very nice and solid head!

I agree wholeheartedly.

Extrapolating from the dates of your university days and your youthful visage on your avatar, the maturity of your work belies your age. I assume you studied art from grammar school onwards - I can only guess that you had some excellent teachers who saw your talent and encouraged it at an early age.

I absolutely love the way you paint skin.

Thanks so much, everyone. I had one teacher in the third and fourth year of my B.F.A. degree whose remarks and insight have stuck with me. At the time I didn't like what he said because he was so unflatteringly honest unless he was really impressed with something (a very C20th British way of approaching art education). He didn't actually teach us how to paint, he just guided us through our own particular pitfalls. One remark about a nude I was painting then (or, rather, not painting - I was decorating the edges over and over and neatening the middle bits) was that it had a "nasty feel" and since then I have become paranoid of slickness and quick dazzling paint that tries to hide a lack of rigor and feels hollow and cheap. Mostly in my work my results come from trying not to paint like this, although sometimes I get so lost in trying not to do something that I can no longer see when something does work.

Thomasin,

This is really fantastic. I agree with everything that has been said. Outstanding!!

David

Thank-you very much David. It's very nice of you to comment so warmly!

Stunning
 

Dear Thomasin,

I truly hope the Art World is acknowledging the unique freshness of your talent. It takes my breath away.

I haven't taken the time to peruse your past posts, but can you speak briefly about your palette and technique? The texture of your work is so intriguing..no medium?

Wishing you every success in your career.

Stanka

Stanka, thank-you so much for your generous comments and well-wishes! And thank-you for taking the time to post your comments. They mean a great deal.

When I painted that painting (about 5 or 6 years ago) I was using a lot of earthy colours such as yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw umber, burnt umber and also basic reds such as cadmium and alizarin crimson. It was the palette introduced at University by our lecturers. They were mostly landscape artists and transfered their landscape palette to the figure. But it worked very well. Nowadays I am using a lot of lemon yellow, terra verte, and cadmium orange, ultramarine blue, and phthalo blue. I am also using some mars yellow and naples yellow to keep the background figures and receding parts of the forefigure warm but not too prominent. I find that a good thick titanium white, such as winsor and newton's one, is great for achieving the substance of flesh

I don't use any medium, just oil paint, although sometimes I do use liquin as a sort of varnish to bring out the transparency and saturation of the paint once it has dried.

I just work the paint, the drawing, and the tonal relationships together, and shifting and reshifting everything around (if I have the guts as it gets harder to be brave the closer the painting is to working) until it looks like a figure in space. At the moment I am working the blues and greens in the light with the yellow whites to create a sense of form. I am also beginning to really see the relationship of the background with the figure - rather than just putting the background in, I am really working the tones, lightnesses and complementariness of colours with the figure to make the figure pop out in a very tactile way.

I am looking a lot at Lucien Freud - very intelligent painter.

Great job.

My favorite of yours!

Thanks so much, Claudemir. I am very pleased you like it.

I finally spotted this thread - Thomasin, it's the organic, tactile, textural nature of your work that is so impressive. There's such a strong sense that you enjoy paint. This painting reminds me of a couple of Boldinis I've seen (not his flashier, late work) - if I can find them I'll email them to you.

Dear Linda

Sorry not to have posted a reply earlier - it has been a busy few days! Thank-you so much for your lovely comments. I am very flattered that an artist like you appreciates my work as much as you do. If you do find those Boldinis I would love to see them - perhaps you could post then on this thread.