Saville's work
This post is not so much about Saville’s work, as about my own response to her painting flesh. Do visit the exhibition while you still can, and take a look at her Instagram page. She burst upon my world with her huge, luscious, fat, fleshy nudes. Oh, very like Rubens but entirely devoid of any religious, mythical or historical backtext. This woman’s gorgeous flesh spilled out in thick oil paint on enormous canvasses. One of the figures was even so large, she required, or invited, contour lines. I remember reading that Jenny Saville used her own body as a model. Fair enough, we all make self portraits, the artist is always available after all. So these images were a result of quite a bit of exaggeration.
My response
I had just started on a regular life drawing practice at the time and loved it. Ouse Life Artists (as we have since named ourselves) were a very safe and nurturing group for me.
I wanted to paint like this, so my husband photographed my 35-ish year old body, having already borne two children, at its most vulnerable, in the bathroom, undressing for a bath, sitting on the loo, having the bath, heaving my body out.
These paintings still make me proud, although I would love to redo them, either with my current body, or with the same references. Let’s go back to painting flesh.
At any rate, I am more experienced with colour now, and would certainly reduce the palette, using a lot more white, a lot more light on the flesh, a lot less background. At least I think I would.
These paintings have never been shown in public, although they are all framed. For a long time, they were stacked in my garage, as I was unsure anyone at all would want to look at them. You might have seen my Mermaid painting, derived from the bath one.
Here they are: weirdly, I find them beautiful. I think many many artists of the nude body enjoy a lot of flesh. I do not enjoy my current size (there is more of me nowadays than then). As an artist, I pretty much revere flesh. Strange, isn’t it?
I shall update this post, if possible, if I find any preparatory drawings. It could be that I simply gridded up the 6×4″ photographic prints.