Sometimes I worry about leaving areas of my own pictures looking VERY sketchy. So I was delighted to be reassured, today, that this needn’t be the end of the world.
I was at the National Portrait Gallery, staring at a portrait of the first Duke of Wellington.
His head had been painted in detail, and a lively expression. His black collar and a bit of white from his shirt were painted in too, and a generally dark background. But his tunic consisted of nothing but a few pencil or charcoal strokes.
Beside the Duke was a portrait of the Irish nationalist Daniel O’Connell.
This featured a pale face painted beneath a dark tall hat, against paper or canvas that was mid-tone.
Again, his collar had been painted but the rest of his body was represented by a couple of strokes of the brush, including one going right (to represent his shoulder).
On the Tube, travelling home, I made notes about what I’d seen:
In another room, on a crowded wall, I saw this self-portrait by George Romney:
I enjoy imagining that Romney just hurled his brush to the floor midway through painting his own arm.
Annie Catford (who taught me art at secondary school, and with whom I’m still in touch) said this when she saw the pictures I’ve shared here:
I like the inclusion of unfinished areas in these portraits you have chosen. They allow the painting to breathe and for the modern eye allows insight into how the painting was constructed. So much more interesting than the airless, stitched up, ‘finished’ painting. De Kooning before De Kooning was born!
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PS. I like Romney. He lived in Hampstead for a while, towards the end of his life, and I’ve walked many times past the blue commemorative plaque.
In fact, only a couple of months ago I drew a wintry picture of the street – the actual block of houses – where he lived.
I was mesmerised by the red of the dogwood bush, against the grey misty urban landscape:
As you see, this streetscape is “unfinished”. The buildings on the top right, for instance.
And I like it that way.