Friday, May 13, 2016

Towards the Light

Towards the Light - portrait of Ade Hatfield, 
2005, dry pastel,

This portrait pastel drawing was done from an oil painting I did over thirty years ago, mainly because I thought I could redo it better. Generally artists paint from drawings but there are no rules, so whatever suits one's practice is the only imperative. It's rare for me to make an image from another image I've already done, but occasionally I try it out. I changed the dress from yellow to green and introduced a dark back ground. I use more colours in my pastel drawing than I do with my oil painting and apply them with a slightly looser technique.

I found the light reflections on the glasses an interesting accident because I didn't plan the portrait to be that way. But it reminded me of a person who enters the latter part of their life which proposes the question, what comes after when our years have been lived? The title of the drawing Towards the Light suggests there may be more but the fact remains we don't know.