My Saturday

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Comment by 05ue98hr2bmf9 on April 4, 2012 at 5:33am

There was a film about his life broadcast recently on the BBC - I did hope that the DVD might be for sale at the show but no. It opened with the ONLY footage ever taken of him actually painting, taken on the very last day he ever painted in his life. It was INCREDIBLY moving and I did actually film it from the screen because I just couldn't bear not to have it. Then seeing the picture he was painting was wonderful too.

He was an amazingly INTENSE person by all accounts, and you can see this from pictures of him, that he had a really piercing gaze. He looked HARD at everything and I think we can all learn a lot as artists from that!

Comment by Mary Alexandra on April 4, 2012 at 4:51am

Ohh how nice to see them in person. When they say delicate i think they mean that its required very delicate moves with the brush or knife to create the tone of the face for example, especially when the surface is already so heavy of color and texture. Its very difficult. I wish there was a video of him painting... He seems a rugh person when you see his pictures and selfportraits... but when you watch him talking you realize how fragile he was. Im sure he was delicate with every single brushstroke he did.

Thanks Mary. This excibition was a huge reason to visit london but times are difficult:)

Comment by Danielle Evans on April 3, 2012 at 9:03am

The London Egg hunt is brill.  Shame a couple have been stolen.  One was recovered quite soon but I haven't heard if the post box one has been found yet.  There are top designers and artists doing these.  I'm sure they will raise loads for charity.

I would love to have seen the exhibit.  Would love to see the heavily leaded paint that he used for his skin tones.

That face does look a lil scarey!   But then again alot of his subjects looked a tad scarey lol.  But fascinating to look at. 

Comment by 05ue98hr2bmf9 on April 1, 2012 at 11:27pm

Here is a nice quote from Freud which featured on a lot of the merchandise at the show:

"What do I ask of a painting? I ask it to astonish, disturb, seduce, convince."

Comment by 05ue98hr2bmf9 on April 1, 2012 at 11:24pm

What I though gave a lot of the portraits such energy was how the impasto got thicker and thicker in certain places - always the face, and usually the hands, and also the legs and feet of dogs he painted. There sadly weren't ANY of the pictures of horses he loved to paint... that would have been nice to see.

Comment by 05ue98hr2bmf9 on April 1, 2012 at 11:19pm

Yes Mary it is very textured in his later works - he worked on each painting every day for months or even years so you can imagine how thick the layers of paint are. Here is one example (Ria Naked):

I thought the face in this was so thickly impastoed that it looked like a dollop of cement with extra grit... LOL but this is what the catalogue said: "Freud was in his eighties when he painted this nude... (with) remarkably sensitive and delicate handling, ... (showing) how fresh Freud's work continued to be; he was still experimenting and challenging himself, even towards the end of his life." I am not sure I can agree that this work is "delicate" ha ha but certainly his late works are really powerful. They also had at the end an unfinished painting left on his easel when he died last year at the age of 88 - he was working on it until a few days before his death and it was shown here for the first time... very poignant.

Comment by Mary Alexandra on April 1, 2012 at 11:00pm

How is Lucian's work to actually see it from close? Is it very textural Mary? I so admire him and wish i could visit!

Comment by 05ue98hr2bmf9 on April 1, 2012 at 6:39am

yep Di we are now on Antipodean time zone when here - I find it confusing but must be worse for you LOL

Comment by Diana on April 1, 2012 at 4:58am

lovely eggs and a lovely day mary! (although the April 1 got me- i guess we're on Australia time on this board?)