Bold PORTRAITS

Inspired by “reckless” Expressionist painters, TERENCE CLARKE shows how working quickly and pushing false colours can add impact to a portrait

- TERENCE CLARKE

Terence's materials

•Brushes Rosemary & Co. Ivory filberts, sizes 2, 3 and 4; Rosemary & Co. Ivory round, size 1

•Paints Medium Magenta, CadmiumFree Yellow Light and Hansa Yellow Light, both Liquitex Soft Body Acrylics; Quinacridone Magenta, Phthalo Green (Blue Shade), Ultramarine Blue, Manganese Blue Hue and Yellow Ochre, all Golden Open Acrylics; Vermilion Hue, Titanium White and Process Black, all Daler-Rowney System3 Acrylics

•Canvas Honsell stretched cotton canvas, 100x100cm

•Brush Pens Sennelier Ink Brush pen, Intense Green

•Water mister

German Expressionism was an early 20th-century art movement characterised by bold colours and marks. Taking inspiration from Henri Matisse and Vincent van Gogh, Expressionist artists such as Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Alexej von Jawlensky are good examples of portrait painters working in Germany at that time. Often much cruder in style and bolder in application, these painters developed an almost reckless attitude toward portraiture where colour was used for emotional impact, using vivid notation.

For this masterclass, I wanted to try and emulate some of the portrait techniques of these artists. I wanted to use colour with a very non-realist emphasis as they did to see just how far it could be pushed in that respect. I worked from life and then developed the image as I went, using colour as a substitute for the actual tones observed in front of me. It was a risky business and had to be done with a confident, no-turning back attitude. The whole session took about three hours.