At Christmas I did some figure paintings of Lucy in watercolour, as I had been given a little watercolour kit by them. Then I painted this oil when I got home, on a canvas 61 x 61 cm. Very much in the Christmas spirit. In fact all the fireworks in the background are the Marimekko curtains which are actually forest green and are full of owls and squirrels and such like creatures.
For Hogmanay they went to stay in Florence with an art historian friend on a residency there, who was living in a flat “stuffed with too much furniture” but the furniture was rather decorative; I was sent some photos of the celebrations and very taken with Lucy in this chair, wearing a dress I made her for a birthday present.
from which the watercolour and this little oil on panel, 25 x 20 cm, came.
This is Lucy taking a selfie in the mirror to show me the gold trainers she was borrowing from Marika to wear with the dress I gave her, from my Japanese designer (Mina Perhonen) stash. Again, the furniture takes on a life of its own. And the background is quite abstract in parts, all the layers welling up to happily partner with the dress and the furniture. Oil over acrylic and pigment on collaged canvas, 80 x 70 cm.
Sometimes after getting quite intense over a painting (the shoes – the feet, it took me ages to get the size right) it’s great to let go and do something really loose of the same subject. I only feel that freedom with watercolour, so this is in a sketchbook.