A couple of self portraits I did while experimenting with gessoed paper as the support. It seems to encourage a fresher and more free approach. I also like the torn edges of the paper.
We put in about four hours yesterday. Started working on Annes left eye, which happens to be her larger one. I've become acutely aware of my own eyes whilst working on this painting. I've become used to working very closely to my painting and looking over the top of my glasses. I am short sighted which means as my eyes age they are actually getting better for close-up work - I have to remove my glasses to read now. So it's been good for the small miniature paintings I've been doing over the last three years or so. However, with a larger painting, and the constant refocussing between observing Anne and working on the painting, I'm finding it quite a strain on my eyes. I've tryed progressive lenses without much success and now I'm tryign the so called mono-vision ie: one lense for long range and another for close range effectively making me one eyed. Everyone has a dominant eye. Just as some people are left handed, some favour the left eye and vice-versa....
On one of my beach walks I found this magnificent Shag, just lying there still warm, but obviously quite dead. There were no signs of distress or damage so I assume it just died of natural causes. I brought it home and made this painting of it. I had to keep spraying the flys and by the time I had finished it was starting to smell a fair bit! It ended up being a study in black.
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