I have been planning a large painting of flamingos for a while. We artists are mocked for daydreaming but so much of painting is, as I like to call it, ‘internal visualisation’ of the finished piece. A large proportion of the planning is not physical work on paper or canvas, but turning it over in your mind. Unseen. Definitely not daydreaming.
My first task is finding reference photos. This can be enormously time consuming, scouring image banks for the right images, the to and fro with agencies or photographers negotiating fees and reproduction rights. It’s essential to do this though. Imagine it turns out to be the best work you’ve ever produced but, having failed to secure reproduction rights, your painting is confined to the studio. Ideally take your own photos, but flamingos are in short supply in Berkshire. For this painting I’m not working from any one image. I’ve spent many hours researching them and want to mould the flamingos to my composition
