a hard day's night

Went to the studio around 10.30pm on friday night and stayed until 7.30am, and this is what I have to show for it:


In order of appearance - top right was first, top left second, then top middle. They are 30 X 30".

Have been feeling sort of anguished the last few weeks, for various reasons. Not wanting to very calmly paint with more tranparent layers, cityscapes in stop-motion, beautiful and serene.
Thought I'd try a little pure colour application, see if I can still do faces after so long, wanting to pour out some of this emotion...

Then I took a break. Made a thermos of black tea & drank it with a little cognac added. Gesso'd a couple of canvases.
Looked at what I'd done with the first 3 faces - not bad but not great, trying for a sense of movement but not sure how successful in that respect.

So. Had some old paintings lying around and decided to just work over them, try a couple of different approaches, and came up with another 5 faces. They are 16 x 17'.

First:


The possibly beautiful acid-yellow woman.
Check out that hair and how about the lipstick - this is obviously a woman of the world, jaded and stylish but somehow not entirely without hope.

Next:


Still trying for that motion thing.
Ok, maybe I was getting tired - she really looks as though she's yawning, doesn't she?

And then these three - all started as very different faces, but I didn't like them & just poured on a little linseed oil, smeared with a big brush, then worked back in until I got to here:


Emerging from a half-light, or a half-life...?




The insecure girl - a holiday picture badly framed, taken by surprise.




Eyes nearly closed, the morning sky is now fully light and my body almost floats.

I suppose in a way these are all self-portaits - didn't refer to photos, drawings or images whatever. Not even the mirror, they are all just imaginary faces, and what a feeling of release in making them!

This last one with its little almost-smile, uh-huh.