Shadow dance

Thomasin Dewhurst · 08-01-2008, 09:51 PM

This is oil on canvas, 24" x 20".

Carlos Ygoa · 08-02-2008, 12:41 PM

Hello Thomasin,

I find this to be one of your most elocuently painted heads of late. I think you have mastered the modelling of the head via the subtle little shifts in colour and my hat is off to you in the way you do this. I

Thomasin Dewhurst · 08-03-2008, 10:36 AM

Hello Carlos.

Thank-you for your comments. I am very pleased you liked the head because I really enjoyed doing it - just enjoying finding the structure of the skull underneath the skin and muscle. The human skull is a wonderful shape, and I think that is one of the reasons it occurs so much in art.

Margaret Ferguson · 08-08-2008, 05:04 AM

Spectacular as ever Thomasin, I love your skin tones
The woman looks beautifully alive, without being photorealistic

I suppose the shadowy figure is quite dominant in the picture although perhaps that was your intention?

It's great to watch your continuing development as a fine artist

Margaret

Thomasin Dewhurst · 08-08-2008, 10:35 AM

Margaret, thank-you very much for your response. I have missed hearing from you on the forum, and seeing your great paintings.

I really enjoyed doing this painting - I enjoyed making the marks, feeling the paint going onto the canvas, and doing the drawing. The figure in shadow will stay as it is for now. The reason the painting works so well for me is that the three colours - the blue, the brown and the pink/flesh - and their placement on the canvas really got a hold of me and gave me the excitement to see the painting through. The figure in light was painted in direct relation (although it wasn't a fully-conscious or deliberate thing) to the blue, the brown and the composition. The brown shadow figure may be slightly too dominant, and too sketchy, but as it is a whole painting I feel very satisfied with it. Whatever is slightly wrong about this one will inform my next work. To change this painting would mean redoing it as a new painting, so I might as well do the changes on a new canvas. My paintings are both studies and finished works.

Margaret Ferguson · 08-08-2008, 02:12 PM

I agree it's a superb image Thomasin. I love the negative shape between the figures as well as the two heads, very dramatic
It would be beautiful in real life, wish I could see it!

I've just been told about a website that allows publication of a book using digital photos, and allows insertion of text as well
I saw an example; it was totally professional looking. I
t struck me as a great way to promote artistic work at reasonable cost ( the shipping cost was OK from the US, they also have a site in Amsterdam I believe)
It's www.blurb.com

Why not have a go and allow us to buy a book of your paintings?!

Margaret

Thomasin Dewhurst · 08-08-2008, 02:22 PM

Margaret, thank-you very much for your suggestion. It is a very good idea. In fact, I have made a book of my mother's poem's from blurb.com, and it came out very well indeed. I am currently making a book of my paintings which is not actually to be for sale, but as a portfolio for myself, and perhaps which I would send to Vancouver BC for the show I am in in August.

Alexandra Tyng · 08-18-2008, 09:56 PM

Thomasin, with each new work you amaze me. The blue is wonderfully cool, yet glowing with warmth (as in hot coals that have cooled on the surface but are hot underneath). I love the expression and light on the face. I also love how the colors and brushstrokes cause a gradual ambiguity of the figure-ground relationship from the neck downwards. I think the "negative" space between the figure and the shadow is so interesting because it is not really negative but a positive interlocking shape. Also the shadow has a lot going on, a lot of possibilities suggested in its surface.

Thomasin Dewhurst · 08-20-2008, 10:47 AM

Thank-you very much, Alex. It is very rewarding to know you appreciate the things about my painting that I find most valuable. I did (and still do) have in mind your comments about each part should be focussed on and worked with the same intensity as every other part, and the shadow area is worrying me, so I think I will work it more into the background. At the moment it feels not quite resolved - as though I haven't made up my mind whether I want it to be a shadow with the feeling of a solid figure or vice versa.