My second MASS portrait, this one of painter Sam Hewitt, my co-conspirator in the MASS.
I approached this canvas in a different manner than usual, using sticky gobs and smears of thickened acrylic media. Larger canvases need larger brushes, and larger gestures. I’m aiming to produce a new portrait each week up until the show in May, and in the spirit of aesthetic experimentation you will be seeing some changes in style from piece to piece.
acrylic on canvas 762mm x 1062mm
I really like the big canvases and I also quite like the way you’re exploring body language with the last couple paintings… the curved backs and wide stances, the legs apart, the arms doing arm things… the fingers curled and suchlike. It helps define your subjects even further than usual. And I like the visual of you painting them when they’re so big and would like you to go even more Alice with the next one, bigger and bigger and bigger…
I think you’re absolutely fucking brilliant. Congratulations on that.