Portrait inspiration

Hi!

I mentioned that I had been inspired by those beautiful portraits of Chris Ofili.

So I put up 4 sheets of A4 watercolour paper up on a board on my easel, intending to use acrylic thinly like water colour, and to perhaps paint the theme of flowers as I have been doing, but from my imagination.

Funny how things change when you pick up a brush.

I started painting and then saw a black and white photo of a woman in one of the neighbouring studios.

I couldn't see it very well as it was in the distance and at a difficult angle to look at, and so I painted loosely the shapes and shades that I could see. It was funny to look at the photo later to see how different my image was. I liked that though.

My friend in the studio has been working on a painting of this photo which is beautiful yet very different in style to the one I painted. I like how we see the world differently.

This is the painting. I'm not sure what I'll paint on the other sheets. But isn't that the joy of it? Not knowing yet being free to do what you like when the paint hits the paper xxx