Avocado suite – 12.5cm x 17.5cm – oil on canvas board
Since the twentieth century there have been numerous paintings inspired by the private devotions of bathers, this one is ‘after’ Pierre Bonnard. You can’t contemplate in a shower, but you can in a bath, and I like the idea of someone doing just that, despite surroundings, despite the luminous bathroom suite.
For more images, click on ‘The figure’
Red flower I – 12.5cm x 17.5cm – oil on canvas board
This is an impasto work, with more emphasis on colour and texture, rather than form, and so the picture takes on an abstract feel. For this I made my own encaustic paint, mixing dry pigments with a paste made of melted beeswax and turpentine. Tube oil paints are something I could never do without, but being part of the whole process, from colour, to paint, to painting, is really satisfying. And also long-winded, no wonder artists took on assistants.
For more images, click on ‘interior and space’