a New Impasto Nude,
by Jennie

This has been a piece that has had a long conception and a slow development. I started with a basic sketch in my diary and spiraled into exploring my development through my injury and the light that is finally starting to appear at the end of the tunnel. I don’t know if it is an interpretation that many people will see in this work, but to me it symbolizes climbing up, doing the hard yards and breaking free at the end of a hard journey. It doesn’t come across well in the photograph but there is a subtle figure, light and airy and bursting away from the solid form, joyous and insubstantial.

It’s mixed-media again, acrylic, gesso, pastels and colored pencil. There is something fun in not being limited by materials, even if it does take longer. I learnt some things while working on this piece too, The layered underpainting is a wonderful and effective process but needs a greater color palette to be really effective (more like Ova – I tried a limited palette this time), and Australian summer is a really bad time to work on something that dries as fast as gesso, especially when every line counts and the texture and white space is so crucial. In the end I am happy with how it turned out, but there certainly were some hairy moments! (like when the Gesso was all through my hair and all over my studio and every bit not covered by my shirt)

This one doesn’t have a title yet, if you can think of one please let me know!

Tags: Art, creating art, impasto, Nude