Sunday 24 July 2011

Lucien Freud










A painters view is often disturbing to many, some will find it too penetrating. Lucien Freud's work brought many mixed reactions from people and various critics. I thought he had an understanding of form and volume, of proportion and balance and painted with tenderness.

Most saw his angle intrusive. Many of his angles reminded me of the times when I would rush to a crowded life drawing class and get the last place to set up my drawing board, I would than have an awkward, foreshortened view of the model. Those are usually the more difficult positions to draw. Freud could draw from that angle and paint it with an understanding of the body, seated, reclined, folded in relaxed poses.

His palette was natural, earthy pigments, he chose to paint with natural light, to me, sometimes it seemed he painted under a fluorescent light, a cold shadowless light.

He was a very good painter, by that I mean with the skill of putting paint onto a flat surface he could create a complex 3 dimensional form; the body, the head, a tree, drapery and express it with a sense of beauty and humanity. Not many can do that. He will be missed.












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