Painting developed in mixed media (ink, crayons, pastels) on card
from an original
Sony Reader drawing
(
Portrait of a woman with rosy cheeks - see below)
14cm x 17cm, April 2010
"Sidonie, la mère de Claudine" as I (erroneously) imagined her
Every picture tells a story
Whilst they are by no means obligatory, titles can provide a useful point of access to a painting or other art work. They allow the artist to offer meanings and even to tell a story. If there is a narrative behind the titles that I create for my paintings it is usually one that tells of the painting's creation: how the painting came into being, evolved and took on its final personality. Certainly, as I am painting my "portraits", (which sometimes reference a "real", living or historical, person but not always) I find myself entering into a dialogue with them, getting to know this person that is taking shape and form on the paper. This painting of Sidonie actually started as a study after looking at the highly stylised treatment of the female face in medieval stained glass windows. (When I was at art college I won an award that allowed me to travel around France to study stained glass. My study was quite preliminary but it is an interest that has stayed with me.) I'd also recently visited the church in Tudeley, Kent, to see the wonderful stained glass by Chagall. Most of the windows in Tudeley use a predominantly blue palette, but a couple of the windows are an irridescent yellow. Surprisingly, yellow is not an easy to colour to use in large areas even if it is one that cannot fail to evoke warmth and optomism. So, as this gentle woman's face took hold on my page I found myself thinking of "Sidonie" the mother of Claudine, the little girl in Colette's autobiographical stories La maison de Claudine in which Sidonie is a discreet but constant, loving and protective presence and force. Sidonie is evoked in these short stories from a child's perspective; this painting too has a certain child-like vision. So, the gentle woman on the paper became, in my mind, "Sidonie, la mère de Claudine." Unfortunately, after re-reading La Maison de Claudine, I realised that the real or original Sidonie was actually blond and rather short and round. So, I had to revise my title: "Sidonie, la mère de Claudine, as I (erroneously) imagined her."
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