Painting: Surface and Gesture, week 1

Surface of the table has already, if inadventently, been painted

During the demonstration I experienced a strong urge to leave immediately - this seemed all too much for me grappling with the fluid messiness of paint and having to choose colour and then working with/from the image of a face - I must have been mad to sign up for this...

But everyone else looked so enthusiastic and pleasant and anticipatory. I stuck it out. "Start somewhere and see what happens."

 My images were "any old thing" from the most convenient newspaper. I turned the first one upside down and mixed some acrylic colours, very thin, for a watercolour effect. The one on the right was my first attempt; second attempt works better. Both are frightening!

 The palette I had chosen was deliberately limited - couldn't resist the pink - plus an orange and a blue. This is an early stage of "the dental implant couple" -

 ... and the "finished" version - I felt very bold using thicker, undiluted paint -

 Second attempt - "The Frightwigs" -

 Well, y'know, this could actually be a bit of fun, if I were to let myself enjoy it. But for years I've been avoiding "faces" and/or telling myself they don't interest me. Which is the sort of negative thinking that gets no-one anywhere. "It's one short class in a five-class course," I was telling myself; "the others have different starting points. You like surprises when you attend a course. You like to learn something new. You like to push against brick walls. And yet, you're being downright silly to react so stubbornly to faces."

Hmm, plenty to think about - and say - about this matter of challenging oneself, or not, by taking courses that put us out of our comfort zone. Another time.

Some gestural inspirations -