Underneath the skin, a study in the identity of Leo Collins, Thursdays sitting....

you may want to look at Leos point of view on his blog http://disabledtransman.tumblr.com/

under the skin ....next phase!

So New year, new phase.
Leo and I are exploring the theme further.....

 Underneath the skin- a study in the Identity of Leo Collins

Are we what we look like or what we feel like?

Does our outside reflect what we feel like?

I try to discover whether I am representing the external or internal self. 

We have already made a straight forward portrait in oil on canvas.

Leo sat for me for several weeks last year and I discovered that painting a person with cerebral palsy who moves a bit over a few hours, is not very different to painting anyone else who also moves a bit over a few hours...

OK here we have what Leo looks like.... but this gives no suggestion to what Leo is like inside or any of the changes he has made over the years...

OK, if I now tell you Leo is trans gender....

does the panting now look any different...

but if Leo has changed his outside, his inside has not altered....

except of course, he has moods, feelings, intellectual developments quite apart from his gender

Over the many sittings by talking I have discovered more of Leo’s depths, finding him to be an analytical, sensitive, insightful young man, capable of enormous self control and determination. He is very open-minded and willing to try anything.

so how do I get beyond the visual? 

I want to draw the whole body, strong expressive poses…anger, calm, yearning, reaching, and twisting. Close up of skin, eyes, joints, in some experimental drawings I made just before Christmas I played with gouache and charcoal, rubbing and removing paper... perhaps I can use this technique....

Perhaps cut some of the pieces up, layer them, collage them….

Perhaps on to make paintings, drips, almost obscuring, the internal fighting to break out of the external.
Revisiting things that I have tried over the years... I want to take some photos too to work from..
 some thoughts..

layering of fabric, the form emerging and pushing through 

 

Identity emerging through gender specific clothes eg pushing through the folds of a ball gown, using perspex to layer images on top of images...

I will experiment for a few weeks.... watch this space.

paintings at the Six Bells at Horringer, near Bury St Edmunds

I have some paintings hanging here so if you are visiting Ickworth house in January pop over the road to the Six bells and take a look.... The foods good too....


http://www.horringersixbells.co.uk/six-bells-blog/

The Blue years Exhibition

Thanks to everyone who came along, it was lovely to see you. I hope you enjoyed the show.
Here are some photos so you can get a taste of the exhibition. 

 

I gave a little talk explaining the process. How, as Blue and I worked together over the four years it allowed me to look further than the likeness. 

I made large gestural paintings to explore expression, texture,  intention, emotion. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some series were about the space and composition,

 

                          and some about the paint marks, the drips.

 

 

with some I went with the flow, what happens against black backgrounds, aginst ochre, blue... and some were purely decorative, to give pleasure and please the eye.

 

  

I am so pleased to have looked at this work again. I intend to revisit the things I found with these figure studies in my interior paintings, to play with the surface of the painting, to pull more energy and expression from the surface, to intensify  the contrasts of dark and light. to merge the figurs with the backgrounds... stir things up again. mmmm.

A conversation with Blue King and Annabel Mednick

Exhibition of Paintings 'The Blue Years'

 I have always worked from the model as part of my practice. I use the tiny observations to build the drawing or painting; I look at the subtle changes of light bouncing off the skin, the delicacy of tone. I enjoy the rapid marks that capture the immediacy and dynamic form of gestural poses.

  For over four years I worked every week with one model, Blue. Sometimes we worked on the same pose for week after week which allowed me to work more deeply than just getting a likeness. In one series I explored the emotion, in another the composition, the humanity. Blue understands what I am trying to evoke in my painting, it has become a two- way exploration with paint and shape. This symbiosis continues in our life drawing classes with, we work as a team.

On Saturday evening, 21st November 6.00 -9.00pm I am having an exhibition of the paintings in my Studio, 'The Blue Years' to which you are very welcome.

Intensive Gecko workshop

Last week I went on an Intensive weeks workshop with Gecko, http://geckotheatre.com/ (a physical theatre company,) to find out how they devise their pieces. and when I say intensive that's exactly what they were.
from 9.30 in the morning finishing at 5, for a whole week.... we couldn't get enough of it.
Here is a taster of their stuff.http://geckotheatre.com/missing/
People had come from far away, London, France, Germany Scotland, Italy...  I was the only one fortunate to live locally...
It was soooo fantastic. I found I was fit enough and didn't collapse in a heap after the first day, thanks to yoga.
and I wasn't the only older person...phew!

Amit Lahav is the founder of Gecko and he facilitated the workshops. He was so generous with his ideas and skill. He lead us gently through the week, building with exercises and techniques both physical and  emotional so we learn to recognise and tap into our basic human instincts and breath that is the starting point  for Geckos work. I found strong echos in the way I build my own work, my paintings. How I literally breath the brush strokes and mark making, so the seemingly banal everyday subject matter has , (I hope ) a truth and energy that is the stuff of life.