I managed to catch Rembrandt: The Late Works at the National Gallery last week. I might have missed it had not been for my mother’s insistence we go and see it and I am so glad I did. The prints blew me away: so much reworking and reworking of the plates, and then each ‘state’ so complete. And I was really interested to see how he used different papers, including Chinese and Japanese papers.
The other thing that struck me at the exhibition was the way he painted hands – they are sometimes really enormous – coming at you right out of the painting.
Thinking of those prints sent me into the studio with a sense of energy and excitement. Today I pulled out some old mono prints which just had a couple of layers of ink and added another layer, which I am going to leave to dry and then work on again.
I also finished another ink on panel drawing last week as a response to the earlier “Held Within” – using freer marks and wet, smudgy lines.
The plan now is to work on a much larger scale.
