5 December, pre paintings and Russian political dissidents..

• Watched Simon Schama's History of now on iplayer. 
• Talks about how Art is such an important political tool.  
• Discovered Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel, which made me think of Rebecca Solnits' writing and how people that feel like normal every day no ones - have the capacity to prompt real change. 
•  Quote from Power of the Powerless   "Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything.  It falsifies the past.  It falsifies the present. and it falsifies the future. It falsifies stratistics......it pretends to fear nothing.  It pretends to pretend nothing."
• Havel talks about people  -  in that they want what they want, from listening to the music they choose to talking freely in a shop and this individual plurality is what makes people so hard to control.  
• I find these things interesting because my portraits have always operated in liminal spaces and had a sense of invisible people - people who aren't represented, who slip into the margins. These writings challenge the concept and elevate everyone to a position of power. 
• It'll sit with me in my thoughts as I paint.
• Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova referenced the book as saving her life - she's been involved in music and performance art that challenges the regime and has had challenges with the government (been jailed) for her beliefs.
• Ai Weiwei - made art from the remnants of the badly constructed schools which resulted in the deaths of thousands of school children when they collapsed in an earthquake  - made a record of the historical truth - Was beaten by the police and put away, his studio was destroyed and he's now in exhile. "because art is so powerful they can't bear for it to exist." aw

Cracked on with some painting today - REALLY nice to get back into properly

Forgot to take a piccy before ploughing in with the white.

This is oil and white spirit as a ground and then as a pre painting - it definitely operates differently on here than on the gesso stretched canvas. Not sure which I prefer because I like the marks in the gesso canvas but this is going on really nicely.

I've not made another square canvas and wanted to do a series of these paintings to help me to figure it out - I've used a portrait rectangle canvas (with rabbit skin prep) but centred the image as if it is still in a square - I think it works.

After going in with the white ! 

I don't think I've used a ground before..it makes a really positive difference.

Really enjoying working like this.

Progress - I'm trying to build but keep brush strokes and sketch qualities

• Stopped at this point and the white spirit mix is counter productive after a while and you just start fighting with shapes and tones - it starts to lift what you're already happy with.
• Altered one side of the face as I always seem to give portraits a generous right cheek (theirs) 
• Will tackle the rest in oil and poppy seed oil mediums - building thin to thick. 
• I like the overall pre painting but I'm not sure if I've painted too much detail too far out from the centre - I really wanted it to look more sketched and looser as you move away from the centre - as if she's real but her surroundings and costume is a fiction.
• I'm also not sure if the shadow line pulls the hat out of balance.

Chaotic home studio shot.

• I really need a less smelly spirit way of working so will try and find more grounds and pre painting mediums.
• I hate acrylic so maybe I'll try it for a base coat ground and then move on to something else but I know that even for that you just don't get the brush strokes that I like. 
• Laura W borrowed me a book _oil painters bible - so I did take a look in there for grounding information. Will look again....