Sue Douglas
12 portraits oil paint on A4 canvas
63cm x 117cm
Title: My Neighbours
Alice Neel, Marlene Dumas and Jenny Saville energise me, I feel alive, excited looking at their work. This strengthens and builds my memory bank, my modus operandi. I watch, look at people and faces, familiarising the many possibilities. It took Harold Speed to remind me that painting is drawing, a sitter is a symphony of colour and form.
The elderly are frequently treated as invisible but have dignity and humanity. Rembrandt and Stanley Spencer notably drew and painted them. This gave me the opportunity to learn, focussing skills I could continue to practice due to my physical and living limitations. I have to date achieved half of the portrait Polyfoto of the older residents of Housman Park with whom I live. 12 yet to do.
When I paint or draw successfully, I am in my own zone wearing blinkers. I look, move my drawing tool, or apply tone and colour seamlessly not being conscious of thought. I have always thought visually and three dimensionally in preference to words. It is natural to me, as is the use of colour. When I paint I don’t think of anything except the subject.
What next? Continue drawing and painting in a learning environment. I have so many ideas
