I have been working a lot on the background of this painting. It has become less of a physical cave doorway behind the figure and more of an aura in my pursuit of creating a sense of place and atmosphere. I am very happy with the paint texture and the subtle shifts of colour. I have also begun the clothing which I intend to make very soft, luminous and painterly. Creating this piece is a very different experience from the still life I am also working on but I am aware of similarities too. The difference is the feeling of creating purely from imagination and looking "in" for reference as opposed to describing something I physically see and looking "out", but there is much the same experience of looking at the paint and the piece for guidance as well. The experience of colour, creating form with the pigment, the desire to create atmosphere and presence in the piece and the pleasure of mark making are very parallel in doing both pieces. You can click on the photos below to see a larger format.
