Two panels, two different approaches

Something I find . easy and enjoyable is changing things up. These two 60 x 60cm panels had a very similar treatment and colour palette and had been leaning against the wall in my studio for a while. They weren’t finished I knew I didn’t want to leave them like that.

So, inspired by my trip to the Royal Academy, to see the Summer Exhibition and the heavily textured work I’d seen there, I decided to build more layers. I started by cutting out some motifs from some scraps of oilstick on canvas. I colleged these on with gloss medium - already starting to like the more tactile quality. For a while now I’ve been keeping my old paint palettes on baking paper, especially when they have large areas of colour. So I got to work choosing and cutting out shapes, deciding where they would go. When happy I added them to the painting with gloss medium.

This had taken me somewhere completely different. The shapes I had were not the same marks I would have painted and I love the very textured surface its given.

The other panel I went back to with renewed vigour, i covered up a lot of what was already there, making bold marks and adding new colours. You can see the energy i was painting with and most of this is visible in the finished painting. Finishing a painting without over refining is something I’ve also been trying to, most clearly seen in this painting.

I did go back to the first panel, wanting to bring the areas of colour together, which i did by softening the edges and glazing over areas. There are details to draw your attention and a richness to the patina of the surface now. I wonder what reaction these two will get……..