The Self-Isolation Residency 21st may 2020: Day 53

#artistsupportpledge 'Twin Sisters' & 'Mauve & Gold', Acrylic on board, 19.5 x 19.5cm, £45 each.

I just wanted to add a couple me paintings to my #artistsupportpledge collection tonight. It's been really nice to be able to spend some time painting again, I'm really enjoying the drawing that I'm working on but in many ways it is very technical and lacks the spontaneity that paintings like these do. Once again they take inspiration from the series of 'Five Sisters' studies that I have. When I decided to begin work on these last week I prepared all 3 canvases boards at the same time before going through all of my sketches to select which ones I would like to develop at this time, actually that process was quite easy. 

These paintings are not really painted in the same way that something like 'Opacity' is, there is no drawing out as such. Instead layers of thing impasto acrylics are applied and then worked into before they dry. This means that although each painting is painted separately the process does allow me to move from one painting to another whilst I wait for the paint to dry; yes, I'm afraid that is the artists-lot, watching paint dry! Some of the coats that I apply have other coats worked into them whilst they are this wet. Other coats have to be completely dry before another layer is added. 

Frequently, as with these paintings, although they all start at about the same time, it is not unusual to find that one of the paintings is developing quicker than the others; in this case it was yesterdays piece' After the Rain that took the lead. once this happens my concentration tends to get drawn towards that piece and I will often work it until it is finished or until I am forced to take a break due to having to wait for layers  to dry. This explains how the process works and why 'After the Rain was ready for posting last night. That was the painting that took the lead and was completed yesterday morning, so I spent a lot of time yesterday working on 'Twin sisters', at one point I even imagined that I may have had them both ready for posting last night. But as I worked on 'Twin Sisters' I realised that I needed to take a step back from it and assess it a little more before I would be certain if it was finished. At this stage 'Mauve & Gold' was only about 3/4s finished and so didn't come into the equation at all.

This morning I reassessed 'Twin Sisters' and decided that although it did need some work it wasn't very much at all and so it was finished quickly enough to allow me to also complete 'Mauve & Gold' today as well. As I have mentioned these are intermediate studies for larger paintings and so are being added to my #artistsupportpledge at a very reasonable prices; £45 each plus shipping, however if anyone would be interested in more than one piece discounts are available upon inquiry.