Tags
acrylics, Chris Ofili, Henri Rousseau, naive style, nose stud, orchids, portraiture, re-vitalised paintings
Don’t quite know how this image evolved. I had painted a tangle of orchids and no longer liked it. I rolled over it in red craft acrylic, but you could still see the shadows of the orchids. There was a gap at the centre, so I thought I’d paint a silhouette of a woman’s face. The black acrylic I used was cheap and so it was slightly transparent. I started to enjoy the naive style and the girl’s over-slender neck. I gave her some gold leaf ear-rings and a nose stud and… voila! It is not Chris Ofili – no elephant dung was utilised in the process. It isn’t Henri Rousseau – no tiger attacking her, but her eyes are mesmeric. What do you think? It is not my usual style – whatever that is!