OIL PASTELS

Some paintings, or rather subjects, allow themselves to be painted. They turn out very receptive to your hand. The process of painting, as if it wasn't filled with twists and turns already, sometimes surprises you with a satisfying outcome: one that matches what you had envisioned.

 

I had been looking for days to find what fits my vision of a perfectly-lit portrait of a face I could practice pastels on, I found it and instantly knew it's the one. The colors in the photo were dark, deep, and simple, the light source gave a low lighting on the face, but just enough to show its position. A perfect base for a take on the colors and the emotion.

 

It all starts as a study of the light and the human face to me. When I paint, it's not striving to achieve some likeness that moves me forward, it's exploring the way the light falls on the cheekbones, the shoulders, that inspires me to go further. It's also the story the painting tells you while it's created. I wanted to enhance the magical mystery aspect of the lady, so I enhanced a variety of pigments in her skin to show how it glows.

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In the end, it has become a Moon Lady, a rather stunning entity alive in her own way on the paper.