Again, my sincere apologies that there is no image with this week’s Blog; a problem again with the new website being in transition. I am SO excited about the new site and am impatient to see it up and running. This piece ‘Liberation’ is about new beginnings for this woman, I think. Off comes the bra and into a new life for her, a strong and confident woman – does anyone else see this?! Would welcome any feedback. I have lost count of the times I have changed the background and flooring in this piece. I was determined not to use brown – why do I have a horror of that colour? – and tried various shades of blues, all of which just took over the picture too much. In the end I decided to go for black to show up and compliment the legs more. I mixed Ultramarine (Michael Harding paints are AMAZINGLY pure, so you use less of them) and Burnt Umber to get the desired shade. I find using just black paint is too matt, too deadening. By mixing these two colours I will be able to vary the depths of tone as I go along. I…
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My apologies as for some reason I cannot upload the image of this work. It could be because I am in the process of having my website completely revamped and therefore I can’t manually upload images temporarily. If you would like to see the image, please have a look at my Twitter account @MicheWatkins from tomorrow (29 October). Thank you for your patience. This painting is in its early stages hence only one leopard print shoe so far. This is a young woman who is confident, modern and very into her fashion. The red bra has come off, hence the ‘liberation’ but I leave the viewer to imagine what happens next. She could be going to a burlesque class, or just finished it; or about to meet her lover, who knows? This is why I so love painting pieces like this, I have my own ideas as to what is happening, but you the viewer will have your own ideas. I may soften the colour of the bra as at the moment I feel I have a bit of overkill on the red tones. There will be more contrasts of light and darks as I go along I think, to…
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Happy with the way this has worked out. It has proved almost impossible to completely replicate the colours on Photoshop for Twitter and here on my Blog, so my apologies. The dress is a more vivid sea green and there are shades of this on the shoes too. I decided to add the rhinestones on the heels as bit of fun, as I feel most women like a bit of glitter on their stilettos…. This painting is now available to buy on my website http://www.michewatkins.com at £295 and is 45 x 60 cm. If you like this painting, do have a look at my website to see more of my work. I like capturing a moment in time in a woman’s day, a woman who is strong, confident, happy in her own skin. Quite often I will crop the work or turn the head away to make the image more anonymous. The viewer is then free to make up their own mind as to what is happening. I am also a great lover of bright colours! I am in the process of having my website completely overhauled and already the work in progress is looking wonderful. Will look forward to…
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