Self-portrait

Thomasin Dewhurst · 05-29-2007, 12:05 PM

This is a self-portrait head (it is actually a detail from a larger work which, I think, may not be suitable to post here, but can be viewed on my website , if you're interested). It is oil on board and is life-size (the whole painting is 40" x 30"). It was finished about 3 years ago.

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco · 05-29-2007, 12:39 PM

Thomasin, it is great to see you at work so feverishly again. The surface of your painting is always so busy and the rythm of your brush activity just terribly intense and musically "ostinato". I can see a lot of Reinassace reminiscence too, and it is very interesting to see them transposed into contemporary
Ilaria

Claudemir Bonfim · 05-29-2007, 01:33 PM

Hi there,

I've seen this one in your website before and liked the whole piece very much.

I think you should post this one in the nudes section.

Garth Herrick · 05-29-2007, 04:16 PM

This is a stunning and magical painting, Thomasin! The brushwork is such a visual feast.

I wish I could get out and see your next gallery show; it would be wonderful to see several of your works together! Thanks for sharing this.

Garth

Carlos Ygoa · 05-29-2007, 05:27 PM

See, like I said: your work is always attention-grabbing

Let me see....there is so much to be said about this particular painting. I like the way you use/play around with reflected lights (on the face, arms, belly...) The modelling of the face and forms is done in your usual unique, inimitable way--very enviable, actually. I like the idea of the repetition of the heads--although they are "repeated", they each seem to mean something different. And the forearm and the wrist resting on your hip is simply exquisite. And your use of colour....
Very big congratulations!

Marina Dieul · 05-29-2007, 08:06 PM

Thomasin,
I love this work! It's beautiful, captivating, and very elegant.
I like how you play with the materiality of the paint. Were you already using this special grey which gives this unity to your paintings?

Oh! Congratulations! I just saw on your website that you're also a finalist of the Richeson 75... well, our works are going to meet each others before than we do !

Alexandra Tyng · 05-30-2007, 10:08 AM

Thomasin,

This head is exquisite! I went into your website and looked at the whole painting and it, too, is wonderful, and I agree you should post in the nudes section with some details like this one so we can take a close look at your technique.

It never ceases to amaze me that you can create such rounded, believable form with so little apparent contrast and subtle color shifts. I'm looking at the mouth and tip of the nose, how they emerge from the surrounding skin. The eyes, too, are not separate things, but part of the face yet made of a different texture and material. The features are differentiated as if by magic. You have to have a very fine understanding of edges to be able to create that magic!

Tom Edgerton · 05-30-2007, 10:41 AM

I love the pearliness of the color...

Thomasin Dewhurst · 05-30-2007, 12:28 PM

Ilaria, thank-you very much! You remarks are very confidence-boosting. This is, in fact, a piece I did a couple of years ago. I am still scraping off the paint from what I am currently doing, so was looking through photos of my earlier work (for ideas and inspiration) and thought this one looked much better than I remembered. I thought I would post it instead of the current shambles of a painting I am doing.

Claudemir, thank-you very much too. With your encouragement I might just post this in the nudes section with some details, and perhaps its companion piece.

Garth, thank-you so much for your exuberantly supportive remarks. They are undeserved but very much prized! I may get a few works up to Vancouver, Canada and London, U.K. before the year's out. Your wish to see my work is very flattering and would love to see yours "in the flesh" too.

(I wonder, has anyone thought of having an SOG forum artist exhibition somewhere central and public?)

Carlos, thank-you too for your wonderful comments. I really do value them. The repetition in the heads, I think - theme is usually not deliberate or that conscious in my work, but secondary always to the paintwork and drawing, is me being my own midwife etc. which is what it felt a bit like when I had my son.

Marina, thank-you very much! No, I didn't use the torrit grey. I am just always drawn to the blues and greys in the light in the skin, and the oranges in the shadows, and I cannot stop satisfactorily until I have a feeling of a single skin covering the body.

Thank-you Alex. I wish that I could use more darks, but they always get lighter and lighter as I put the reflected light in them to get the three-dimensionality. The subtle variation is, in fact, a failure to get chairoscuro.

Thank-you, Tom. The pearly blues in the light that I am drawn to seem to suggest a translucency and vulnerability in the flesh, which I need to get as it makes the figure seem more alive.

Thomasin Dewhurst · 05-30-2007, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marina Dieul

Oh! Congratulations! I just saw on your website that you're also a finalist of the Richeson 75... well, our works are going to meet each others before than we do !

Sadly, no, I wasn't one of the finalists. I am just having two of my works published in the book they are doing. Congratulations on your being one of the top 75, though. I am very envious.