The Naked Silo

Aisha with Camera 1 36" x 24", oil on canvas, 2005 The ref for this painting is from the same shoot as  these two paintings , but I decided to change her shirt colour. My idea was that this painting would be a companion piece to another painting of Aisha, and in that one she's wearing a white collared shirt. Also, I think the white top works better against the green than the actual blue top would have.

22" x 15", watercolour, 2008 These two paintings were done concurrently in order to achieve a consistent look. They are also another example of me taking many subtly different photos during a session and then deciding to make a series or diptych or whatever based on the photos rather than one single painting. Still working in a "loose" style here, before returning to the controlled blending of Ashley Reading . Obviously, I prefer dramatic, slightly expressionistic lighting to flat, traditional lighting, and I think I managed pretty well during this shoot. The cameras came out quite nicely and, because of the lighting, become interesting focal points down at the bottoms rather than the more expected (and perhaps more traditional) focus being on the woman's face up at the tops.

22" x 15", watercolour, 1998, private collection This is my first painting in which the Kodak Duaflex appears, and the only one in which it's being "used" rather than simply being held or appearing on its own. Using colour to highlight the area where the camera appears and making the rest black & white was an experiment; it's kind of interesting and technically pretty good, but I'm not sure if it was altogether necessary. However, I do think the camera itself looks great and is clearly the star of the piece, so maybe the experiment worked after all. You decide. The title refers to my own use of a camera as the umbilical connection between me and the subject which then filters back through me (via the resulting photograph) to the final painting. The word is written using charcoal and done during a brief period when I was writing on my paintings (I haven't done so in years). Previous posts with charcoal writing on the paintings: mad. , w

22" x 15", watercolour, 2000, private collection This is the painting that's in the top left of  this painting . This one's made up of three separate photographic elements: the background of sunflowers, the model, and the still life in the foreground. I specifically chose oranges only for their similar colour to the figure and background, and that camera, a Kodak Duaflex IV , is one of my favourite props and turns up from time to time with different models and in different settings. The Sunflowers series was named in two parts: the Latin name for the sunflower and parenthetical aviation code to distinguish the individual paintings (although in some places R is "romeo"). I did the whole alphabet (26 paintings) with a 27th, Corona Solace (omega) yet to be completed (the different spelling is deliberate...and, although not part of the aviation code, " omega " still ties in to " alpha ").