Ruth Rouge

This painting started out as an experimental landscape trying out some textural ideas using combs and paint shapers but when I got to a certain point I just didn't see it going anywhere as I was unable to control the effects in the way I wanted. I began to take the paint off the board with a kitchen towel and liked the textures it was producing so I decided to run the paint over the whole board and then move it around with a kitchen roll which produced some interesting shapes and textures that would be ideal to use as a background for a portrait...hence "Ruth Rouge"which is linked by colour to an older painting "Naomi Rouge". The model is the beautiful Ruth Netania of whom I had a good set of reference photos taken a few years ago to choose from.
I tried to keep back the lightest highlights until the end when I just painted in a few "wet" highlights on the nose etc as I wanted the figure to stay back in space and be nearer to the background. There is something a bit Deco about the feel of the picture, probably due to the background looking like the Bakelite used a lot in those days and Ruth's propensity for 1930s/40s (?) hairstyles and clothes.
Oil on board 18 1/2" x 18 1/2".
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.