Notes on the Nude

*Illustrated. 104 pages. Available as .pdf
 
The author has spent a lifetime painting and sculpting the female nude and this book gives a rare insight into his work and the thought processes involved, from both the artist’s and model’s view point. By way of hundreds of paintings and scores of sculptures in his series Daughters of the Caribbean Sun, many of which are illustrated in the book, the artist pays homage to the natural beauty of the Afro-Caribbean woman.  He gives credit to the model’s essential contribution to the creative process and in turn his models speak of the benefits they have derived from modelling for his work. The notes express the artist’s own personal approach to depicting the nude. They are not meant as a course of instruction or an academic thesis. As with his paintings, they were jotted in the heat of the moment and suggest rather than define.
 
The book contains over 100 colour illustrations of the artist’s work.

 
To capture the female figure in all its moods and changes, I have developed a rapid way of working with watercolours. This enables me to record the fleeting vision that I see out of the corner of my eye. My painting sessions last no longer than one and a half hours. By the end of that time, I am exhausted, and my model has begun to wilt. Not that I expect my models to hold a rigid pose; no one can for longer than few seconds. In fact, I encourage my models not to pose in the accepted sense of the word but to twist, turn and stretch as they please. It is in the split second that the model moves from one position to the next that I see a position that otherwise would have eluded me…