Figure in Turban
 

Here is painting I finished today, although after posting it I see that I may just have to add some bulk to the left hand side of the turban and make the background recede a bit more there too.

It is 30" (h) x 40" (w), oil on canvas. I posted what it looked like previously in the works on progress section to give some idea of the changes I made to it before it seemed finished. Here is that thread.

Wonderful Thomasin. Your paintings have so much life and energy - I love them!

I ditto Heidi!

Thomasin, this is rich. I love the apparent spontaneity, and textured space at the top. You've made excellent decisions. Love the understated color too.

I'm amazed at how well you change and transform your paintings. :thumbsup:

Garth

Thomasin,

The turban and the drape give this figure an androgynous quality that is quite interesting, but not disconcerting, because the smiling face reassures the viewer.

As usual I am in awe of the way you model flesh with so little value range. In this painting the skin is particularly lifelike and glowing, as if the model came straight out of the sauna. There is a fluid quality to the highlights that I admire. I'm particularly drawn to the way you have modeled the cheekkbones, nose (particularly the bottom of the nose), and the skin under the chin where there is some reflected light. The smile is also so well-handled in that it is natural, not frozen. That is very hard to do!

Overall, there's an impression of a limited color range, but when you look closely, there are so many colors used to modify the larger areas. Very subtle. I love it!

Heidi - thank-you very much. (I've been having your sculptures roll around my mind as I am trying one of my own at the moment. It really has renewed my appreciation of your work. You are very good and truly do deserve what your client said about your posthumous miniature pieces.)

Garth - thank-you for your comments and your own paintings which were a good part of what inspired me (along with Balthus, Velasquez, Goya and Degas) to do and change this one for the better.

Alex - thank-you very much for your considered comments. I am pleased you do like this one. My paintings lead me a certain way towards a narrative but I always like to leave things unexplained, keeping that feeling of possibility in a work which makes me want to paint more. That kind of sweet dissatisfaction like leaving off eating something yummy without being totally full, therefore always waiting for the next opportunity to have more.

I loved the lighting. Great job!

Your work has a quality and level to it that shows an artist who is sincere and strives to please herself -- traits which make me have a healthy envy and respect. I admire very much your economy of brushstroke , your ability to suggest while not defining too much, saying plenty with very little. The use of the brush is bold while the use of colour is subtle. Congratulations!

Thank-you Claudemir and Carlos. Carlos, you appreciate just what I hope to be achieving in my work.

Thomasin,
when I saw this, I immediately thought to Chardin's self portraits, because of the turban, I think, the texture, and also the sincerity...
Your colors have a special quality which are very unique to you. ( would you share with us your palette? )
I also like very much your composition.
Very nice work!

Thomasin,

Another beautiful painting. It has that wonderful roly-poly generosity of Flemish-Dutch painting. It is alive, real and humorous at the same time.

I love the way you control your flesh tones within such a subtle range.

Thank-you Marina and Sharon.

Marina - I am pleased to have this painting likened to a Chardin, whose paintings I really respond to because of the rich, hearty paint and the wonderful clear-sighted crafting of his pieces to their never-failing perfection. After I did this painting, which I did because I felt that if I was painting for myself then I would do just what I wanted (despite it's looking much more traditional and old-fashioned than is usually accepted by the contemporary who's who in art crowds). You just can't deny the mastery of painters like Chardin and Velasquez and the relevance it still has for painters who love to paint, and I simply wanted to paint like that with this one.

My palette is usually limited to what I have left in my paint box, but I tend to use a lot of this Torrit Grey from Gamblin which is a mix of all the left-over paint from the year's paint-making. It comes out around environmental day and is free with any purchase of Gamblin oil paint. I use Gamblin a lot because it seems to be less toxic than the other makes, and with a young child around I want things to be as safe as possible. For this reason I also don't use turps or anything else. Just the paint. Torrit Grey is really good for my shadows because it is a kind of anti-colour, but rich because it has all the pigments in it. When I run out of Torrit Grey I usually make my own from ultramarine or a black and a cadmium orange and a brown like raw umber and perhaps a cerulean blue and then quite a bit of titanium white.

I usually use a lot of cadmiums although I do use the hues and not the pure stuff because of toxicity issues. I found that cadmium orange and white make a great pink flesh tone and works well with the torrit for making the light and the shadows in the flesh. I usually put a cadmium of some sort in the grey depending on what I see in the shadow. So this, I suppose, is my basic palette at present. I do use a lemon yellow when called for and cadmium orange and black scumbled on in the background and then some of the flesh tone in the background too, with a bit of cerulean or ultramarine blue to make it recede. And violet sometimes helps with that too. It's all a bit of an experiment to see what works the best.

Sharon - I am getting up the guts to do a really burlesque painting. Something Goya-esque. (But what would people think!? How unfeminine!)

Thomasin, my model just showed up with hot pink striped blond hair, Previously she was an ash-blond and I had painter her that way. I said, "what the hell" and painted in the pink striped hair.

Yes, I read that about you and your model on another of your posts. It does give me courage, and your piece that was threatening to become a Barbie doll was actually a bit of a challenge for me to do something a bit more daring. "What the hell" indeed! It's only a bit of painted fabric after all, and it doesn't have to come out of the cupboard (Picasso's "Les Desmoiselles" was hidden away for many months, wasn't it, before he had the courage to show anyone. And that's Picasso).

Adding to the chorus of kudos here, Thomasin, I am another one who really admires the various tactile paint surfaces you achieve. (And as Alex says, those light value colors are subtle and very nicely managed.) Your texturing method reminds me a little of Odd Nerdrum's style.

Exactly, this is very true. but his techniques are a lot about sanding down thick layers of paint.

Chardin and Velasquez are top five favorites of mine too! I love how Chardin polishes the illumination in flake white perfection.

Okay, where does one get Torrrit Grey? Who sells it? I remember meeting Bo Bartlett as he was searching for that color unsuccessfully in Philadelphia. He was just gushing about it, and could not contain his enthusiasm.

Garth

Thank-you very much, Linda and Grethe. (I am not too fond of Odd Nerdrum, although I thought I liked his work a couple of years ago.)

Garth. Torrit Grey comes out around environmental or earth day - and I've just found out that this offer is coming to an end at the 30th of April!! And I haven't got any yet.

Dickblick offers Torrit Grey with any purchase of gamblin oil colours.

What is interesting to me, is that the more rejections I get, the bolder I become. I have not for the life of me ever been able to figure out what the judges or the public want.

At this point in my life, I feel that as far as painting, I have nothing to lose. It is intensely freeing.

I have posted this before somewhere, but here goes. Years ago when I first started my dancer series, (they were far more traditional then) my model walked in with lime green bangs. I was furious. As I was painting her from life, I could not for the life of me get beyond the color that I saw.

Fume, fume, fume, glare, shot daggers at the model.

The next day, I realized, this is a contemporary girl. It is the late 20th century and I am not a 19th century gentleman, namely Degas

Good luck with your next painting adventure. I cannot wait to see it!

Thank-you, Sharon. I also find that a well-timed rejection can work wonders for the development of my art.

Degas could be quite weird himself, though, couldn't he? I mean his figures can sometimes look unsettlingly zombie-like and his colours sometimes shriek unrealistically - so I think he himself may have not been totally adverse to lime green hair. What freedom suberb drafting and compositional skill allows! Draw well and anything goes, don't you think?

I am very pleased to say that this painting sold at the recent "South Africans Abroad" show at Hodnett Fine Art.

What great news, Thomasin! I am thrilled for you.

Fantastic news, Thomasin.........very well deserved! (hope I get half as lucky...)

Thank-you Alex and Carlos. I am sure you will be much more than half as lucky, Carlos.