Two Figures
 

This is oil on board, 40 x 30". It is an earlier work that has been sold, and is a favourite of mine.

Thomasin,
I like this very much, the combination of the two bodies in likewise, but slightly different poses, produce an element of movement. I can't help thinking of Degas's dancers. The colors, almost monochrome, are delicious.

Thomasin,
I have seen this in your website and have wondered why you had not posted it here. I

Thomasin, I also have seen this peace on your web site and it is one of my favorite of yours. I especially like the intensity within the stile, pose and subject as they intertwine. The facial expressions are well documented and radiate on a gentile face. I also like the way you have expressed the figures and form with a simple pallet of earth colors and I believe the temperatures are perfectly executed.

Your work truly expresses dedication and your love for art is quite evident. I would like to see more of this kind of work from you. I believe that if you paint with this kind of intensity, defining your self with this stile of work, and what ever you use as your subject will bring you true satisfaction.

Brava!

Thomasin,

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

I love it's simplicity.

Thomasin, it is very nice!

Mischa,

I do think she said that this was an older piece. What I love about Thomasin is that she is fearless and able to go beyond what has been successful for her. What will bring her true happiness is something that only she can find out proceeding with her life and with her art.

No one can judge this for her.

Artists become stale, rigid and irrelevant, no matter how skilled they are; if they are unwilling to further experiment with their work and cast off inhibiting preconditions and ideas. That takes courage and she has it in spades.

Allan, thank-you very much for your comments. I was influenced by Degas at the time of painting this, and also Picasso's early works.

Carlos, thank-you also very much for your kind remarks. I am glad you like it.

Mischa, I wish I could paint like this again, but it is quite difficult to return to an earlier style and keep the marks convincing. Thank-you for your generous comments, though. They are appreciated.

Sharon, thank-you for taking so much time to think about my work. You are such a great support for me! And thank-you for your kind comments about this painting. They're very much appreciated.

Thank-you, Enzie, too for your comments. I am pleased you like it.

Thomasin,

I love taking another look at your earlier work (as I've seen it many times on your website), and thinking about it in comparison to your newer work.

There's an honesty, a lack of stylization, to your nudes which is fascinating, all the more so because many people would argue that idealizaton of the human form is necessary to imbue the nude with meaning, or to raise it to an allegorical level. I prefer this kind of painting because the figures speak to me. Their bodies and facial exprsssions form a whole. They are real people, and yet they represent something you don't have to describe in words. You just feel it. In this way I find our early work utterly engaging and very consistent with your recent work.

I agree that you cannot go backwards. You must go forwards and follow your instinct. There is no other way!

Thank you for this perspective on your work!

Thank you very much, Alex. I am pleased you see a consistency between my early work and my new work - sometimes I can't. To me my work often seems like such a motley collection of ideas, not at all representative of a professional artist. There is such a change in myself from when I painted my early work and now, that looking at my early painting is like looking at the work of another artist and trying to work out how it was done.