BACKGROUND

I saw the exhibition of Hurvin Anderson’s work at Tate Britain recently and I was taken by the way he depicted scenes from old photographs such as his painting – American Tan (Mrs. S. Keita) 2013:

I have in recently years come across some of my parents’ old photo albums, one that I thought had been lost since they died. So I now have access to all the old family photos! Seeing Anderson’s work inspired me to want to paint some of the old photos, especially the black and white ones as they speak of the era from my childhood. I chose a photo of me and my mother when I was around 5 years old in 1971.

METHOD

I decided to paint in oil as I have been rediscovering oil recently. I used a canvas board and primed in diluted grey acrylic. White chalk was used to mark out the composition.

Then the different areas were blocked out.

More details were added:

Finished painting:

REFLECTIONS

It has taken me a few years to ‘tackle’ painting from these old family photos. When I first saw the family photo albums years after my parents passed away, I felt quite emotional and couldn’t quite face painting from them. I think I am almost ready now. So this is a first attempt.

I remember the occasion very clearly. It was my mother’s fashion design course ‘graduation show’ at the Hong Kong City Hall when we modelled clothes that she designed and made. I modelled a pink lace and sequin dress which was very sparkly. It was winter and I was wearing my ‘puffer’ coat with reindeer pattern. As we were leaving the event, a photographer wanted a photo of us. My mother turned to put down the carrier bags so she could pose properly and the photographer captured that moment.

Throughout the painting process, I thought about that night a lot and of course my mother’s creative journey. How talented she was but she didn’t have a chance to take it further than a hobby because she had a young family and therefore responsibilities that came with being a mother and a wife from that era.

I had my MA Degree Show last summer and I remember all the work leading up to the show and the exciting of the event. I expect it was just the same for my mother and I hope she enjoyed the event. I remember she looked like a professional model on stage.

I have enjoyed making this work. I enjoyed the process of painting and all the agony that came with that. Even though I decided not to paint the faces, it was still a challenge to find the likely with the profile and slight shadows on the faces. It was hard but enjoyable. I don’t think I quite got my mother right but I decided not to over dwell on it. I didn’t want to paint the faces. I saw on many of Anderson’s paintings that he didn’t paint the faces and merely suggested the features with very subtle shadows. I couldn’t get the subtle shadowing right. I keep staring at the painting and wondering if I should do some more to the faces. I have resisted so far. Why didn’t I paint the faces? Firstly, it’s difficult to paint faces of people that you know so well. I can never be happy with the likeness – it doesn’t matter so much for strangers or for people whom I’m not emotionally connected with. I don’t think I’m ready to paint my mother’s face yet, I would have to think very hard about her and then feel disappointed in my efforts. I’m not sure if I’m ready to take that on yet. Or ever.

I am learning a lot in returning to paint in oil. Lots of good technical learning which is captured below.

LEARNING

– Use thinner oil to build layers otherwise it looks overworked and lumpy (e.g. my legs were overworked compared to my mother’s).

– To create depth in aerial perspective, darker foreground and then gradually goes lighter as it goes further away e.g. into the horizon. Try to get this right from the start, saves repainting once all the details are in which I had to do to the floor. It wasn’t a major rework but it’s something that’s easy to get right from the start so I should do it.

– Just try things. I tend to over work and then default back to focusing on details and not painting loosely enough.

– Use fresh paint. I reused paint that had been sat around for too long which got quite lumpy, not good.

– Do lots of drawings as preparation especially for figure work. So that fewer strokes are required to get it right on the painting to achieve a cleaner look and to avoid overworking. I must do more drawings!

NEXT STEPS

Do another oil painting of an old family photo. Ideally with more people and a more complex composition to challenge myself and experiment with the new learning points.

Do more drawings!!