Boy with Knee Up

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Originally Posted by Linda Ciallelo

Thomasin, I find that my response to your style is very positive. I really like this a lot. It's not just "ok". It feels really right somehow.

Thank-you very much, Linda. I work and rework a painting until it does "feel right". I am not completely sure why something does feel right, but I think, for me, it has a lot to do with simplifying things and using stronger and more definite outlines and shapes, and also, with figures, a living personality.

I tend to need to create rather than portray people, so, no, I don't think I am a real portrait painter very often, although I do enjoy painting particular people now and again. This one, for instance.

[Sharon Knettell]

[Linda Ciallelo]

I just read "Painting Methods of the Impressionists" by Bernard Dunstan. He talks a lot about lines(outlines) and about scraping off paint to leave ghosts and then doing multiple loose corrections. He says they did many thin layers until it was right.
I am most thrilled by a painting that is mostly lines, patches of color, and then as if by magic, parts of it appear real. It's that transformation from flat paint to something 3D that I enjoy most. In order for that to happen, at least part of the painting must be left in an unfinished state and equally important , part of it must have "spot on" reality.
I have just spent yesterday and today tearing out a wall in my studio. I'm hoping to get a new Nikon D200 in January. I'm hoping to actually get to trying some of those lines and scraping soon.

[Tom Edgerton]

I used to think that of many of today's most notable painters, Burt Silverman had the most individual and idiosyncratic style. Then I saw some Degas paintings at the Met, and much of it was there...the loose areas vs. tighter finish in the same painting, thick and thin paint on the same canvas, the broken remnants of a calligraphic, drawn line, all contributing to a rich and non-literal and very painterly mystery and atmosphere. (He's owned to this influence himself.)

Interesting how traditions are passed along and are transformed by each new practitioner....

[Alexandra Tyng]

I can totally relate to what Linda, Tom, and Thomasin are saying. This conversation expresses what I like most about certain paintings and styles, including yours, Thomasin, Burton Silverman's, and others. Yesterday I was admiring the still life paintings on Ilaria's (forum member's) website and I felt the same way about them. For me there has to be a sense of mystery, a sense of being painted, evidence of being worked on, of the process and the resolution of the process. This resolution is most interesting for me when it is brought to varying degrees of finish in acordance with the focal point and, concurrently, with what the artist is trying to say.

[Linda Ciallelo]

I went to look at Thomasin's webpage and noticed something else that I liked about her work. It 's something I noticed about Burt Silvermans also. In most cases she keeps her values very light. Many times she turns a plane with color or temperature rather than value. What would normally be dark shadow in a photo, becomes a pale blue shadow. This of course is something else that the Impressionists experimented with.

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Thanks Linda and Alex, and Tom for your comments.

I find that when I am really in the swing of things the painting's story of light and colour continues into the shadow areas. The shadows are not just supports for the light areas but part of the real content of a piece. It is, at the most enjoyable moments, like following a trail that keeps turning corners so you can't see what's coming next, and feeling very fit and energetic and wanting to walk and walk and walk. I love to see what colours in shadows will do to the three-dimensional form. Painting experimentally is like keeping your mind jumping from viewpoint to viewpoint. I find more and more these days the need to paint to build up ego or self-image is being taken over by the fun of trying things out.