Red

The progression of the hearts in my Impossimal paintings have changed quite a bit over the years, more than I really realised. Going back to 2006 my hearts were more 'pointy' and heavy on the shadows with little or no hint at the curved surface. I didn't mean I didn't like them, to me they looked right, just that I didn't understand what made a heart, hearty. They were also painted using just red, black and white leaving little to experiment with.

Gradually over the year I changed a little and lost the pointedness and added in a bit of orange to liven things up. The heavy shadows were disappearing too and being replaced with a glaze of crimson for depth.

A few years later and the orange was fully integrated into the hearts, white was used for a nice shine and the edges were brightened back up to start to give a 3D feel.

 The next step was to go all 3D and it started with this one, taking everything I had learned I put it all into the heart and glazed it heavily to make it glow. Around the edges a highlight lifted it away from the background. It was nearly there...

 2010 and a piece called Baby Love, originally modelled from clay for the first time I could light and see a true heart shape before I painted it. To get everything right I used charcoal to pop in all the shadows before I started paying attention to the light bouncing back then rapidly placed in the colours starting with the lightest first.

 Once finished it was probably the most accurate to date in terms of shape and form and made a great centrepiece for the painting.

 But this one was completely different. Using a little glass heart that was kindly donated to me by fellow artist  Jurgen Dabeedin of Blue Shift Gallery (http://www.blueshiftgallery.com) I managed to capture the heart shape, tone, reflection and colour all in one giving a true 3D heart.

I had tried 3D hearts before in different positions and although they looked right in the pieces they appeared in now I'm using the little glass heart things are different.

As you can see in this photograph from a piece called celebration, three years between each painting shows a marked difference on something as simple as a heart.

Don't forget this weekend we are back out with the Impossimals in the galleries again, this time at Chelmer Fine Art, Chelmsford, Essex on Saturday 17th March 12-3pm and way down in Bournemouth for an appearance at Westover Gallery on Sunday 18th March 12-3pm.