This is the first time to me, to revisit a paintings design and do a ‘re-work’.
But why re-work it?
I wasn’t happy with the previous paintings final outcome; The experimental background unsuccessfully distracted from the pictures figurative subject. Which really should be the focus of the viewer's gaze.
To to drive this change, I took a work in progress photograph of the 2015 painting which had just the skin tones blocked out against a pure yellow background. This photo has formed the basis of the new painting.
Keeping the composition true colour field at its core - Purple and yellow a complementary colours, with an effective interplay between a dimensionless colour field and a floating figurative subject.
The composition is from a photograph I took on a beach in Greece, with the figure predominantly in shade, with bounce light from the surroundings.
I have altered its composition, adding more lower leg, which exaggerates the perspective of looking up at the subject. As this was one the most successful aspects of the previous painting. Drawing the viewer’s eye upwards to the subject's face. The face is reduced in size due to foreshortening, by looking upwards across the body with a hands on hips pose, conveys a strong confident stance, yet an intriguing calm gaze off into the distance...
Tried to make the yellow glow using a high chroma Cadmium yellow light, making it the lightest tonal value on the canvas
I kept the blue underpainting layer through for the glasses and the lower legs, which seems like an on-going theme in my recent work. This is purely for aesthetics and has no deliberate meaning.
