About this painting

I wanted to explore using more areas of neutral/muted tones in my work, rather than the whole painting being a big punch of colour and pattern. So with this piece, the pop of colour is very much contained.

 

In keeping with this idea of reigning things in a little, I also wanted to try and depict the subject of the painting in a simpler way. So here this piece is based on a portrait, like many of my other works, but that face is depicted by what is close to being just a single line with a few details either side and that line is essentially what separates the two contrasting areas of the painting.

 

Out of this thought process, I have made two paintings - Simply Be and A Way In (which are similar, but almost in an inverted way).

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In A Way In, the different areas of the painting are joined by those lines and grids that I love to use, and of course you see other familiarities in the shapes used, the layers of texture that features in most of my work and some of those wonderful colours.

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A Way In was created with mixed media (gesso, acrylic, collage, graphite, Caran Da'che Neocolor II and graphite) on a flat wood panel, which is presented in a custom-made hand-painted square wooden frame 38 x 38 cm and 3.5 cm deep. It is titled and signed by Gillian Hancey on the back and signed on the front in the bottom right corner, and is ready to hang.