One of the things I'm encouraging myself to do more of is paint impulsively, to go for it, and to hell with the mess and mistakes. This can sometimes end up bad, but also sometimes good. Even a bad canvas can teach me something. And so that is how this painting arrived. Late at night/ early in the morning, coffee drunk and a coiled spring unwound as a finished canvas is lifted from the easel, I then decided to stand up and paint this wee guy. He'd joined me last summer, topless and without a care, I gave him all the metallic tubes of acrylic I could find, a wee easel and a canvas, and let him go for it. He had a whale of a time, and it took about 30 minutes to scrub that 'fun' from his tanned frame later on.
The reason I like this kind of painting is it's a real test of my eye, and my technique. And It's immediate. Instant results and sometimes surprising results. Like my cooking.