From little beginnings

Before working on a really large painting, I usually like to create a mini study to get an idea if the composition and colours will work together. It also gives me something to reference (and reassure myself that things will pan out ok in the end!) if I have a smaller version on hand.

The following are examples of what the mini study (painted with acrylics on paper) looked like first, before painting on polycotton canvas. The same brand and colour paints are used, so that I can accurately mix large blocks of colour.

The smaller painting is 14x14cm, and the larger painting on the right was 120x120cm.

It might seem obvious, but when you paint on a larger surface, there's more space to fill. So things that may have looked interesting on a small scale, may seem empty when it's a larger painting. Some artists get around this issue by having lots of mark making and textural elements or brushstrokes, which aren't that easy to create on the smooth polycotton I use. I'm not a huge fan of lots of random textures in my work, as I feel it can make it look cluttered and crowded, and sometimes have unintended effects like attracting the eye where it shouldn't go. So I spend a lot of time adding deliberate shapes and shadows, making sure the flow of the painting is right, and mixing a lot of harmonious colours to add variation.

The smaller painting is 14x14cm, and the larger painting on the right was 76x76cm.

It's also a lot easier to blur edges and create suggestions of shapes on paper than it is on smooth canvas with fluid acrylics. Blurred or hidden edges have to be a lot more deliberate, as do transparencies (such as the light filtering through the trees in the painting on the right).

You may ask why I don't just paint on paper at a large scale then, and that's a great question. The answer has to do with what galleries feel they can sell (there's a bigger market for paint on canvas than on paper behind glass), and I also haven't found a large scale paper that I particularly like to paint on. Even these mini studies may one day not be possible, as Strathmore are moving their paper mill from the USA to France, and the resulting paper absorbs the paint differently. (Who knows, perhaps the USA tariffs may stop that process!)