Neil Dawson Original

He begins by covering the canvas with paint. He paints in a blur, a very impressionist technique, blocking in basic areas of colour and form. From this he sharpens the image gradually, working across the whole painting rather than concentrating on separate areas. It is this stage that takes the time. Each individual layer of paint must be allowed to dry before the next can be applied. And oil paint can take an age to dry. Once dry, it is possibly the most stable vehicle for pigment, so a painting will hold on to its vibrant colour for centuries. Especially now with modern advances in colour technology. Although he of course didn’t live to see, even Van Gogh’s use of unstable pigment in his quest for spectacular colour has resulted in many of his paintings having faded, or at least lost certain specific colours. The colours in Neil Dawson original paintings will live on and on.

As the clarification process is taking place, he is carefully measuring quite how far this process should go. His finished original work often has a certain bedazzled quality. A slight blur that hints at energy fields and movement. It must be a careful balancing act to stop painting at exactly the moment when this blur is just there. Just before it is painted into clarity.