Following an inspirational talk at the art club by Roger Deller,  http://www.rogerdellar.com/ , on painting interiors with oils, I had to give the medium a try.

I’ve not really used oils before (2 paintings in the last 5 years) and needed to sort out a canvas/board and prepare it for oil painting. I used a 24″x 16″ hardboard and made my own gesso. Not used to this scale of painting, as all my watercolours are no larger then A3 and most much smaller, I had to get familiar with the scale and composition. The subject had to be an interior and with my current interest in social tango I selected a challenging shot of a Tango Festival in Porto, Portugal.

A couple of years ago I attended a memorable Tango festival in Porto (thanks Maria) with a group of friends. The main milonga were held in a fabulous room in the ‘ateneu comercial do porto’. I’ve tried to capture the room, atmosphere and dancing with this painting. Lots to think about and improve on but a really enjoyable process. (I’m not used to photographing oils and there is a bit of glare showing through)

I’ve been working on another ink painting, again using just black and white. This time the dancers are professionals but I  liked their embrace and the way she is stepping back. Very tango.

As I worked on the main image I was aware of certain lines and shapes that I wanted to focus on but couldn’t on the smaller scale. So I identified those shapes: the line of her arm on his back, the curve of her back and her feet: and produced close-ups of them.

The combination of the images produces an interesting composition/focus and as someone remarked today a ‘Marvel’ comic book effect.