New Portrait of the Old Man.

It's been my intention from the get-go to paint a large scale picture of my grandfather in wine. In the first sketch I tested what I could do with wine alone to render a face. I like the result although I did not take it any further than washes. That picture took 3 rounds before I decided to stop, I liked the result, many people did...and anymore could be a step back. As usual I stopped at a pleasant location, the only trouble was it was not the destination I had in mind. The question then is always 'what is this?...and is this it?'

My intention with 'Boab' was to see how rich I could make the wine in layers with numerous washes, you know, at the risk of saturation, could I break through to a new depth of colour without ruining the picture?...it was an exercise but in the process I saw something perhaps more important than that.

With 'Nancy' I painted myself into a corner. In doing so this picture passed many stages and in that I saw the most amazing things happening on the paper. The wine seemed to remain maliable and could be re-worked long after it had dried. My eyes were close to the picture and I could see waves * moving across the paper ending in shores of the strangest kind. At one point I had the portrait I wanted, then I lost it, swallowed by a wave that didn't stop. One of those moments where you feel a cold sweat. Finding my way back was hard going.

There are two approaches, as far as I am concerned. In one you are looking for nothing in particular and if you find anything at all it's a pleasure. In the other you know exactly what you want and struggle, if you have to, to get it. They are equally impossible in their own odd ways.

Yesterday I laid out a new picture, closing in at a large scale and painting over 9 pages (3 x 3. 9 pages at 18 x 24cm each). In this case I am saturating a simple image of a man of great age.
He's 108 in a few weeks time. Vintage 1900.

*Red Waves ~ In the close up below one can see the blooms of wine in here hair. I like how it moves in the wet and like that it is unpredictable in how it settles.