Secret Women's Business
101 x 66 cm - Framed in a black shadow box frame
Ink painted with stick on paper
Originally this painting was to be titled ‘A Modern Human Experience’. It came to me when I was (on the very rare occasion) getting my hair cut at a salon. I’ve always found the experience just so odd. Humans have created the weirdest rituals. So anyway, I’m there getting my hair cut and this image flashes in my mind, of two women, one getting her hair cut one doing the cutting, sitting in a forest with the dog bored by the oddities of human behaviour at their feet. I get home I sketch it and I stash the idea away. It’s the very last large painting to be completed for this exhibition. I took a trip down to visit some friends in Clunes who I’ve organised to pose for the painting. Next thing you know the three of us are in the forest at Clunes, plus two dogs, a chair, a guide on safely identifying the local fungi and a lot of mud. We find a clearing in the forest and set up the scene, playing around with some poses and composition ideas. Then in a mystical moment the rays of sunlight shine through, directly onto the women. You couldn’t time it if you tried, it was just one of those magic moments. It was a risk to try and recreate those sun rays after spending 30 hours on the painting and leaving the light to the last. I think it was worth the risk.
101 x 66 cm - Framed in a black shadow box frame
Ink painted with stick on paper
Originally this painting was to be titled ‘A Modern Human Experience’. It came to me when I was (on the very rare occasion) getting my hair cut at a salon. I’ve always found the experience just so odd. Humans have created the weirdest rituals. So anyway, I’m there getting my hair cut and this image flashes in my mind, of two women, one getting her hair cut one doing the cutting, sitting in a forest with the dog bored by the oddities of human behaviour at their feet. I get home I sketch it and I stash the idea away. It’s the very last large painting to be completed for this exhibition. I took a trip down to visit some friends in Clunes who I’ve organised to pose for the painting. Next thing you know the three of us are in the forest at Clunes, plus two dogs, a chair, a guide on safely identifying the local fungi and a lot of mud. We find a clearing in the forest and set up the scene, playing around with some poses and composition ideas. Then in a mystical moment the rays of sunlight shine through, directly onto the women. You couldn’t time it if you tried, it was just one of those magic moments. It was a risk to try and recreate those sun rays after spending 30 hours on the painting and leaving the light to the last. I think it was worth the risk.
101 x 66 cm - Framed in a black shadow box frame
Ink painted with stick on paper
Originally this painting was to be titled ‘A Modern Human Experience’. It came to me when I was (on the very rare occasion) getting my hair cut at a salon. I’ve always found the experience just so odd. Humans have created the weirdest rituals. So anyway, I’m there getting my hair cut and this image flashes in my mind, of two women, one getting her hair cut one doing the cutting, sitting in a forest with the dog bored by the oddities of human behaviour at their feet. I get home I sketch it and I stash the idea away. It’s the very last large painting to be completed for this exhibition. I took a trip down to visit some friends in Clunes who I’ve organised to pose for the painting. Next thing you know the three of us are in the forest at Clunes, plus two dogs, a chair, a guide on safely identifying the local fungi and a lot of mud. We find a clearing in the forest and set up the scene, playing around with some poses and composition ideas. Then in a mystical moment the rays of sunlight shine through, directly onto the women. You couldn’t time it if you tried, it was just one of those magic moments. It was a risk to try and recreate those sun rays after spending 30 hours on the painting and leaving the light to the last. I think it was worth the risk.