New Work in Progress February 2019 Blog

One of the most flamboyant singer/songwriters to emerge during the last few years is Lady Gaga. Like David Bowie she constantly reinvents herself in her songs, performances and appearance. Her make-up, hair-style, dresses, and other costumes can change quickly and dramatically, and although best known as someone who performs her own songs, she has also turned to acting. My first painting therefore represents her in a typical normal musical stage persona with bleached her and make-up. There is still some more work to be done and I’ve made a few adjustments whilst writing this blog.

I’ve been working on all five of these paintings at the same time, partly to motivate myself and avoid boredom and also to give me confidence and loosen up! The next one, a Venetian sunrise, is deliberately painted more freely in an impressionistic style as I often find that if I become too obsessive with detail I make more and more errors and forget to stand back and look properly to assess what I’ve achieved (or not)!

The next portrait is again an attempt to capture Lady Gaga or Stefani Joanne, Angelina, Germanotta, (her original name) as she appears with little or no make-up in the remake of the feature film ‘A Star is Born’ in which her acting has been highly praised. Next to this is another singer- songwriter, Sandy Denny, who died young and was for a time the main vocalist with Fairport Convention. The last one is yet another depiction of Kate Bush, my all time favourite subject who I have struggled with for many years! As usual with all four portraits it’s necessary to use someone else’s photos as a reference source because there is no way I have direct access to these subjects. There is a real problem here about consent, authenticity and originality as I’m doing my best to avoid copyright infringement by making a direct copy of just one (usually not credited) photograph.

All portraits have now been revised further after a pause to review and reflect on the above versions.