Nick Cave (alla prima), 40“ x 50”, sometime 2003, Acrylic on canvasThis is an ‘old’ painting that seems to have been kicking around forever.
If memory serves, this picture was painted sometime in summer of 2003 and was based on a composite of 3 or 4 photographs. At the time, I was not yet painting in the chiaroscuro style, hence the lighter background. The apparent ‘lightness’ of the painting exists for another reason: there’s only one coat of paint over most of the canvas and so the white ground or ‘primer’ shows through really clear.
The painting is quite large but believe it or not, was relatively quick to paint... all of 6 hours. Most of my attention was focused on getting the face - and the lighting of the face - exactly as I wanted it. I was inspired, I guess. It was a monster session of coffee, cigarettes (I was smoking then but no longer) and repeated listenings of the album, Nocturama. Only later did I learn that creating a picture all-in-one-go like that is called alla prima. I haven’t done anything like it since and this picture stills hangs pride-of-place at work. It’s a sort of cultural-intelligence test: some visitors, perhaps because I work in a ‘bookish’ environment, think that the portrait depicts Martin Amis. Most visitors, however, do guess correctly and so this picture passes what I think is the true test of a portrait (at least for beginners) .ie. does it look like the person you were trying to paint?
