I’ve been working on my series of rain paintings for many years now, starting with a small postcard for the Twitter Art Exhibit, which lead on to many pieces and have been such a joy to paint.
Recently, I’ve been taking this much-loved motif and expanding upon it, making larger and more complex works that go beyond the original reference. In one example, I wanted to compare two paintings to see how they’ve developed. The original obviously had more detail, was more of a direct copy. By stripping it back to just a single figure, the unusual composition begins to create a narrative, as the woman walks out of the frame.
When I started painting these postcards, oil on paper – oil on a smooth surface – was an unknown pleasure. I have now come to love the way that the paint glides over the flat surface, that sometimes moving back to canvas or linen, with the rougher texture, can be so strange. I’ve been painting more and more frequently on gesso boards – a hard surface that has been pre-primed with gesso. This new piece on the right, ‘Those Things I Said’ will form a new larger series of figures in the rain and figures in the landscape, coming later in the year. To see all of the rain paintings leading up to this, click here.
