Eighteen

If you’ve been following my “61 for 61” project, you’ll know that lately I’ve been scrolling through photos on an old iPad as reference for paintings. Is this cheating? Sometimes it does feel like it is. I can say it’s often a blessed relief not to have to make up the image. So what’s the challenge in working from a photo? Well, for starters, I don’t have the skill to paint a portrait, so I don’t in any way want to try to replicate the photo. In this case, it was the suggestion of a feeling I was after; I want to show a bit of the tight, wound-up feeling of what I imagine it is to be an 18 year old, right at the cusp of moving into the unknown.