Resting Entertainers

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

This is one I finished recently. It went through a lot of changes, especially near to the end when I made such a mess trying to get things "right". You can see its progress here in the Works-in-progress section or on my website here .

It is 40" x 30", oil on linen.

[Tom Edgerton]

As one who never puts down enough paint, I always love your surfaces. As much as they translate in photography, I imagine there's real weight when viewing the originals.

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Thank-you, Tom. With this one it was actually quite necessary to build up a thickness because I accidentally bought a linen that was really much too rough to work with satisfactorily, so I had to smooth it out by adding layers of palette-knifed paint.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Thomasin, it is an interesting painting and after Tom's comment, I wonder how thick is your paint application? Is it really heavily layered on and sort of three dimensional?

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thomasin, the light in this work is exquisite, I also love what appears to be the thick, palpable paint surface. It is fascinating how the process is right there in the finished product. (Or is it ever finished?)

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Thank-you Enzie and Alex. Alex, it is funny you should mention the painting's not ever being finished, because I just redid it this afternoon and posted the new images just a few moments ago. I am very pleased you appreciate the light - it was something that kept on nagging at me to get clearer and clearer, and it is is so difficult not to overdo it, which I did many many times.

So, Enzie, regarding what I just said to Alex, the paint is more scraped off than applied thickly, although there are some thick parts especially in the lightest parts. The shadow areas are more pressed down into the canvas, and the lights and whites scumbled on. I have attached a picture of the surface from the side, so you can see it is not all that thickly painted, more the remnants of layers that were discarded during the process.