Dreaming Figure

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

I have reworked this painting, and am much more satisfied with it. Here it is: "Dreaming Figure", 16" x 20", oil on linen. The earlier version is posted side by side with this one in the works-in-progress section.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Beautiful texture and color! I'm curious to see where you go with the sleeping figure theme. She looks as though she's in the middle of a complex dream.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

It's an interesting and deep theme to explore, and all these figures, though they are still, seem to have a complex dynamic going on inside, they have a special density that draws me to them.
Ilaria

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Thank-you, Alex. I really enjoyed working on the textures and colours. I think I might (in fact, I started yesterday) rework the mouth as it is a bit glaring - too ugly and not finished enough. I think I am guilty of copping out too soon with certain things such as the mouth or the eyes because is is a great effort to retain the suggestiveness and get the details, which, when I actually do them, I find are most important.

Thank-you also, Ilaria. I find the subject of dreaming, like the subject of migraine (as in "Self-Portrait with a migraine") quite an interesting one to explore as it is an intangible thing, unlike the figure itself. The figure - well, the thing about the figure that I am most drawn too - is the solidity and tactility of it, and to express something intangible by those physical aspects is quite exciting because of the extreme oppositeness of the mental and the physical. Similar to the mirror-world of domesticity in "Sweeney Todd" (as I've seen it in the film version): quite fascinating.

Another influence was, in fact, David Kassan's backgrounds. I had been thinking how interesting and exciting it might be if he used the type of paint (brush work and impasto) he uses in his background in the actual figures - keeping the extreme sense of reality and three-dimensionalism, but using less obvious paint i.e the kind of heavy metal type of paint he used in "Approaching Noise". I think that would make for some really exciting work.

[Carlos Ygoa]

Thomasin,
Finally I get to your work (so many posts to respond to this afternoon)...
I agree about the innumerable possibilities these theme could have and how the link between aesthetic-psychological could be very interesting and revealing. But I will limit myself to the aesthetic and say (once again) how much I admire your ability to abbreviate and say so much. Your work (at least what we have seen from the Forum) has evolved greatly and I see it approaching a sort of primitive honesty that can only come about from an equally sincere knowledge of oneself or continued self discovery. But didn

[Marina Dieul]

Interresting work Thomasin ,
I also love the colors and textures. In a certain way, it make me think to Chardin, but with a contemporary approach.
Interresting also to see your influence on Carlos' work...