I think I have finished the perspex piece

(Please forgive the easels in these photos... (it was hard to photograph.)

So, They will be suspended with a little gap between them so the viewer can walk through.

 

I am still fighting with the perspex but I'm getting closer....

 The piece has two sides. Here is the Gender side. I am still working on it. 

 So, I think I am happier with this. I have painted with oil paint on the perspex to make it more subtle and have a Renaissance feel. It still needs hair and perhaps more work on the face but I don't want to loose the abstract, transparent quality and a sense of movement. Now have to add Leos poems.
Earlier stages are below. (working backwards.)

I have flipped the piece and it is more subtle. I have removed the lower limbs. I added a smaller box for the figure to break out of.

 

Various stages of the face, I found the plastic stained glass paint was a bit unwieldy, I couldn't get enough subtlety. 

 

 

Here the 'Skin' is changed to a breast and more detailed painting.

This side of the piece is representing gender and has the figure holding his skin like St Bartholomew  in the painting by Michelangelo of The Last Judgement on wall of the Sistine Chapel

Getting to grips with the perspex.

Its been a struggle, but I think I'm getting there.
This piece focusing on gender

This on disability.

They have been greatly enhanced by Leos poetry.

exploring the perspex

So, the perspex ideas,
the sketches

developed into an idea about Leonardo's vitruvian man,

I took zillions of photos,
arranged them as the man... then did more.. (poor Leo)

so,
then did small perspex studies... using clip frames perspex and stained glass window paint.

The perspex and paint is interesting, different light affect it, viewing from either side is different. I planed to scratch, distort, drip, use Leos words as the writing.
I bought a big sheet of 8 x 4 feet and had it cut in two.
I began making the painting.

 I stuck photographs to the back and traced them

 outline,

 painting

 too much painting, too hunky, too religious.

 breaking it down again, trying to get the involuntary movements.

Breaking it down more, scraping it off, hands too religious... (god and Adam) changed hands.
At the moment I hate it, so I am giving it a little gap. I have some further ideas going back to the simple out line, perhaps a see through wall, so you can see all the other paintings through it and exploring a sort of crime wall.

Latest new paintings for Byard Art in Cambridge

 Latest new paintings for Byard Art in Cambridge  

 http://www.byardart.co.uk/exhibitions/christmas-cracker-2016/

 

Ocher and Dappled Shadows 100cm x 100cm 

 Red and Patterned Carpet  75cm x 100cm

Turquoise and Terracotta Pots  100cm x 100cm 

and I am also showing

Mountain Lagoon Swim  90cm x 90 cm

latest paintings of Leo

Two new paintings of Leo finished.
The first painting, 'OK, look' was a response to the exhibition I had of the paintings I had made of Blue. (click here to see the post. The Blue Years exhibition)
When we look at life drawing we look at the figure depicted. We may look at emotion, brush strokes, the human being. Whether the person is able-bodied is not the issue. Here Leo is simply 'the model'.

' OK look'. oil on canvas 76cm x 100cm

In the second painting I explore how disabled people, if represented in anyway, rarely are show with status. We noticed professor Steven Hawkins always wears a suit and so we explored this idea.  

'The Jacket'. oil on canvas 76cm x 100cm

new direction for the under the skin project

I find its always good to have a bit of space away from the work to let if ferment... I went to a fabulous garden in Athis de l' orne in Normandy created by a couple of visual artists Dominique and Benoit Delomez ... click here to see the website  http://www.jardin-interieuracielouvert.com/index/le-jardin 
and some of the sculptures they had created inspired me to take the work I am doing in a new direction. First developing the paintings I have made of Leo already

I plan to make some  more paintings focusing on just Leos hands and feet, and maybe his torso.

 Then using perspex as a support (a material I have used before ) with stain glass window paint, etching and reflective paint to take the ideas further.