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December 19, 2005

Four years three months eight days seven hours, and the rest

“Ohh, how long did it take you do that?” They ask, regularly.
In fact that’s the second most popular question. The most popular question is:
“Ohh, who’s that?”

Well, to answer the first query, [we can chew over the other question some other time] this White Head:

white-head-DQ434.jpg

White Head, oil on panel, 1060mm x 1060mm

for instance took five years three months eight days and seven hours. Which breaks down like this: the panel was constructed some four years ago, since then it has been home to many images. There have been two figures standing left and right, there have been some pants stuck to it, it’s had holes drilled in it and tools hung from it. It’s had a heavy impasto of gesso applied, it’s been kicked and wrecked and over painted.

In March this year, together with a few other panels, it got a rich background:

studio-mar-11.jpg

Then, after spending most of the day selecting the image from a batch photographs I took a few months ago, at eight o’clock yesterday evening I set about the painting, slapping on a wet off-white paint first of all, over the background colour, then wiping it off to find the features. At one point I got in amongst it with an angle grinder, to flatten back some heavy impasto. At about three o’clock this morning, after an hour or so of looking at it, I decided to call the brushes in. So that’s the last seven hours.

Of course, it’s taken many, many years to get to that initial starting point.

Posted by john at December 19, 2005 02:09 PM

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