This one is pure imagination, unlike most of my pictures which spring from an event or encounter that transfixes me, this one sprang from a need to change scale after painting a series of smaller pictures. As you will see there is a lot of serendipity operating here.
The figures derive from the three figures seated on the river wall in "By the Cam" - I speculated what the composition would look like from the other side, and that is what I drew originally in my sketch pad. See below. Three figures in dark navy blue, that was the core idea. Then our cat made an appearance, even though he died before this was painted and he sits on a garden bench that bears some resemblance to ours. Sorry, fella! Cat needs the space. I just changed the faded grey teak to something a bit more colourful because the picture demanded the colour. The wine bottle disappeared and left me with two people drinking a glass of wine. So I thought about how we like to have a drink in the evening, weather permitting.in the sketch one of the figures is holding his glass and I transferred that grip to the remaining two when I set up the painting; I developed the glasses in a semi cubist way, knowing I could play with the imagined effects of transparency when I painted them.
The green foliage organised itself. I had originally intended to grade the green from bottom to top in a series of blended bands but once I had placed and painted the figures lines suggested themselves around the two heads which suggested shapes and I just went from there.
It is not nostalgia; the two figures are not us. The cat is there in another mode of being, thanks to quantum entanglement or something...#figurepainting#seatedfigurespainting#maleandfemalefigurepainting#seatedmandandwomanwithcatfigurepainting
The original sketch with three figures
The final painting