Original artwork description:

This painting explores the female form through the continual layering of paint through many years. Begun in 2001 and worked upon over the last 16 years, this painting has evolved in many various ways. Layers have been added, stripped off, re-applied over and over, adding to the textural quality of the painting and the evolution of the figure. Just as the human body changes over time, so this painting has also changed and aged and been re-made through the last 16 years.

The painting displays all the marks from previous applications of paint and the shifting form of Carly's body. Carly was a someone I knew many years ago and posed for this painting years ago circa 1993/4. It was not until 2001 I began the process of developing a painting which I knew I would spend many years working on, developing the piece as a continual and evolving work. During January 2017 I came back to the painting to strip back and re-apply a final layer of paint, working on the painting everyday over the month up to 16 hours a day, pushing and pulling paint into the final image you now see.

The painting became an exercise in exploring many tropes of painting practice with the history of painting the female form via the artists of the past including such greats as: Titian, De Kooning, Matisse, Picasso, El Greco, Manet, Chagall, Munch and the massive back catalogue of images collected throughout the World of African and South American figurative work. Each piece of art infused in my thoughts during the process of this painting's evolution.

This is my homage to the grand history of 40,000 years of art-making and to the artists throughout time that have sought to capture the essence of the sacred feminine and the divine nature of female power and grace. An embodiment to the mystery of womanhood and feminine energy that has captivated men for millennia.

Materials used:

Oil Paint, Dammar Varnish, Linseed Oil, Canvas/ Decorators Sheet

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