Emotional desert: no oasis

This painting may well not be finished (Together-alone; 50 x 60 cms, oil on canvas 2005) but I have been living with it for a long while. I have already shown you a more close-up version of the same composition on June 15th in a smaller format in oil pastel - the original long sold and gone. In this oil painting I wanted to create a desert-like emotional landscape in which the alienated couple is marooned, cast adrift in their tension and the woman clinging to the man as if desiring to let down anchor into his spirit. He stares outwards in pain, fearing the closeness, unable to feel it. Smudgy things going on in the space are my "together-alone" trademarks, shoes, candles, shutters. A sad painting; compositionally rather wilfully lawless. I am still waiting for it to tell me why.

a bientot

Jane

Blue dream embrace

A soft pastel dream of an embrace from 2004 (40 x 30 cms chalk pastel on paper) which was lurking at the back of my studio on my open studio evening along with other works pushed out of the way to make room for the show. Nevertheless someone found it, seized it and bought it. So it has gone now. I must say I always liked the pensive mood of the woman, (me, maybe.....?)

a bientot

Jane

Striking the show - with a lightening pose.

As I take down my show - another one that I thought had some merit - a very, very fast look at the model, her reflection and my own... the complimentary bright blues percolate down through the image to duett with the orange background. And I am linked to my model in terms of colour and treatment ... my pencil outstretched like a wand. A charm, a spell, an enchantment. The relationship is always special.

a bientot

Jane

Drawing Titi

After a long break at my second home in the depths of France where the internet is so slow there is no chance of adding to the blog..... now I take up my daily entries again.

As I take down my July exhibition and unite works with their purchasers I realise how strongly the theme of artist and model was underlying all the work. At the time I had a much vaguer notion of what was developing. But I am learning that you must trust yourself and work - eventually the concept or tendency will reveal itself.

So before I throw myself into something new, a few thoughts from the striking of the show. Here is a rare work with a male model - usually my co-model painters in our studio prefer females. I must have had a couple of minutes to grab the essentials in that magic medium charcoal - Statuesque Titi, his reflection, and my own reflection. A certain, almost oriental, calligraphic feel to this.. which made me think of finishing it off with a chinese stamp, since discovered to be the wrong way up, which had been in our family for many years, together with my signature, bottom right, just before I framed it. Too bad the photo was made before that; that accent of red made the whole thing sing.

a bientot

Jane