It started with an idea to use an old painted canvas as a backing for another piece of work. I wanted the backing canvas to be a dark colour, so started to paint out the portrait with Paynes Grey (I love that colour). Carefully starting at the edges of the canvas and working in to the face I stopped and couldn’t bring myself to paint over the eyes. Painting out the rest of the canvas leaving just that part exposed or “unwrapped” brought focus to the central part of the face which, when you are viewing a portrait of someone, is the area that your eye is drawn to.
Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Untitled work, Acrylic on Canvas, 40cmx50cm.
The texture of the swirls and sweeps of the overpainting adds to the overall fascination, perhaps asking the viewer to imagine what is beneath the parts that are not exposed.
I stopped and hung the work to contemplate the effect. In me it evoked thoughts of strength and vulnerability at the same time.
With this canvas I feel now that my work is evolving from investigating wrapping and covering forms in pattern to exploring covering and uncovering aspects of a form. Adding and subtracting paint, physically mark making, concentrating on the surface and the appearance of the form underneath as the layers are sanded away.
I have several portraits that I have painted over the last two years that I put away as they were not working for one reason or another and I think now is the time to experiment with them to make new work and see where it takes me.
