Simon's Blog

I had a strange juxta position yesterday of what art I love to make.   In the evening a young friend of mine asked me about a portrait she was making – I immediately started to explain the faults I saw from a propositional prospective – especially the over large eyes.  Most of the points were accepted but she was quite insistent about keeping the eyes the size they were.  Each to there own but it did make me realise that the one things I love to capture in my drawing and painting is the human face.

Earlier that day I had the same realisation when I attended my life drawing class.  For me life drawing classes are an ordeal that I must go through.  This, of course, is obsurd as I don’t have to attend any of these classes at all  but of late I have taken to doing my own thing.  This is no criticism of the tutor but rather a realisation that I work at a particular pace and that I can only achieve so much in the allotted time.  What this means is that whilst all my other attendees are creating paintings of the full figure I just concentrate on making a portrait.  Since I have taken this step I suddenly feel a lot more fulfilled by the whole process.

Other things point in this direction.  I cannot make landscape drawings or paintings and the reason for this is because I make landscape photographs.  This is not as trite as it sounds because when I make a landscape photograph I use the very same skills I use to make digital paintings.  So are my photographs paintings?  This is a pointless debate as I no longer see any distinction between the two.   On my LinkedIn page, I have no idea what LinkedIn is for but I have a presence there, people who know me have given me endorsements for Portraiture.

So I guess it is true – I love to make faces and the more I see faces the more I look and understand the infinate information they give out – which I guess is one of the defining features of being human.