Dreaming Figure

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

I have reworked this painting, and am much more satisfied with it. Here it is: "Dreaming Figure", 16" x 20", oil on linen. The earlier version is posted side by side with this one in the works-in-progress section.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Beautiful texture and color! I'm curious to see where you go with the sleeping figure theme. She looks as though she's in the middle of a complex dream.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

It's an interesting and deep theme to explore, and all these figures, though they are still, seem to have a complex dynamic going on inside, they have a special density that draws me to them.
Ilaria

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Thank-you, Alex. I really enjoyed working on the textures and colours. I think I might (in fact, I started yesterday) rework the mouth as it is a bit glaring - too ugly and not finished enough. I think I am guilty of copping out too soon with certain things such as the mouth or the eyes because is is a great effort to retain the suggestiveness and get the details, which, when I actually do them, I find are most important.

Thank-you also, Ilaria. I find the subject of dreaming, like the subject of migraine (as in "Self-Portrait with a migraine") quite an interesting one to explore as it is an intangible thing, unlike the figure itself. The figure - well, the thing about the figure that I am most drawn too - is the solidity and tactility of it, and to express something intangible by those physical aspects is quite exciting because of the extreme oppositeness of the mental and the physical. Similar to the mirror-world of domesticity in "Sweeney Todd" (as I've seen it in the film version): quite fascinating.

Another influence was, in fact, David Kassan's backgrounds. I had been thinking how interesting and exciting it might be if he used the type of paint (brush work and impasto) he uses in his background in the actual figures - keeping the extreme sense of reality and three-dimensionalism, but using less obvious paint i.e the kind of heavy metal type of paint he used in "Approaching Noise". I think that would make for some really exciting work.

[Carlos Ygoa]

Thomasin,
Finally I get to your work (so many posts to respond to this afternoon)...
I agree about the innumerable possibilities these theme could have and how the link between aesthetic-psychological could be very interesting and revealing. But I will limit myself to the aesthetic and say (once again) how much I admire your ability to abbreviate and say so much. Your work (at least what we have seen from the Forum) has evolved greatly and I see it approaching a sort of primitive honesty that can only come about from an equally sincere knowledge of oneself or continued self discovery. But didn

[Marina Dieul]

Interresting work Thomasin ,
I also love the colors and textures. In a certain way, it make me think to Chardin, but with a contemporary approach.
Interresting also to see your influence on Carlos' work...

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Carlos, I don't mind at all you posting your works here. It adds a great deal to the thread. Very interesting that you rub your paint into the canvas with the bursh and your fingers. I do that a lot (mainly with the brush - the fingers sometimes), and I use the heel of the brush too. I do this especially when I am painting the sides of the figure or face - areas that recede and don't reflect but rather absorb the light.

I used a lot of terre verte (Winsor and Newton - terre vertes differ from brand to brand) with cadmium yellow and cadmium orange to get that absorbed light. I also used a flake white on the frontal areas that do reflect the light keeping the texture scumbled.

This is the influence of artists like Chardin, and also Courbet and Rembrandt who used very impasto, sticky, almost sculptural paint to paint fleshy things. I love that the best of artists from previous centuries. I don't have a feeling for the subject matter of the past that much, but definitely the paint application.

Carlos, thank-you very much for your very thoughtful comments. I am pleased you appreciate the simplification in my work. I feel that I work as consistently and as hard as if I were painting a traditionally finished painting, but scrape off and redo instead of building up. It is something instinctive, trying to get the paint itself to feel like flesh. I am, hopefully, going to work this theme this year for the solo show at the Hodnett Gallery next year.

Carlos, your painting details look good, and very passionate. I am looking forward to seeing the final work. Congratulations on this commission - well done! I was told in art school to keep the same intensity and freedom in the marks throughout the painting as you have in the start, when you have nothing to lose. You could try and focus on making the actual paint passionate - trust your instinct - keeping a focus on the feeling of the painting and working constantly on the relationship of the tones and colours whilst you are finishing off the painting. Try not to simply neaten and tighten but make each mark (perhaps using smaller brushes) an exploration of tonal relationships, and try and keep the paint in a flesh-like texture and weight. Courbet, as Marina mentioned, is a great example of this. Also, William Whitaker's excellent student, Emily, has just done a wonderful classical painting that does just this in the face - keeping the properties of the paint and the illustration of the features equally important. Here's the picture at the conceptart forum.

Marina, thank-you for your kind comments, also. I am pleased you like the colours and textures, which is what my focus was on.

(I am currently redoing the mouth and torso on the left side. There's nothing like publicly displaying your work to bring the errors into sharp focus! I'll post the two versions in the works-in-progress thread, and the final version here.)

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

I have reworked the this painting and feel much happier with it now. I have posted the newly-finished painting, and have posted the earlier version and this version in the works-in-progress section.