I’ve been busy painting to a theme “Shadows and Light”. These small oil paintings I’ve been working on lately I’ve been loosely calling my “freaky faces” series.

The titles had to be in long before the artworks, so unusually for me, I had to dream up a couple of names first. I went with “The Darkest Light” and “Dark Dreams”.

Like most of my work including the paper Mache works, I don’t like to plan too much. Starting with a rough idea about what I’m doing, I like to build up the piece with a fairly loose hand, letting all the elements fall into place as I go. I never begin with a sketch, just straight in with the paint ( I usually carry a rough sketch in my head.)

The danger in this is that sometimes I have to lose a particularly beautifully painted part for the good of the whole. Its a very rewarding way to work though, I’m problem-solving all the way to the end. It gets me thinking of the work as a mysterious journey.

My paint of choice is a water mixable oil. It has a lovely oily texture with the convenience of a soap and water cleanup. Being slow drying it also forces me to slow down and think about the next steps, which I need ( I’ve ruined more than a few paintings by pushing ahead before I’ve thought about what I’m doing.)

I liked the idea of a central figure with a background of wee beasties emerging from the dark.