Richard Gray's Paintings: The Importance of Proof Reading (from the mona lisa to dawn of the living dead).

It's so easy, when you're engrossed in the creative process, to stay 'too close', and take your eye off the ball. Things go wrong........ and there are happy accidents. That's why we proof read. That's why we need to step back, look at what we have done, objectively, and question the decisions we have made, whether they're marks made with a brush or words on paper. It's about exercising control over the vagaries of the creative act. 'Proof Reading', or in painting, standing back and reflecting on what we have done, is the control mechanism. It's about checking that the horse is still pointing the direction that you want to go in...and sometimes it's best done after a bit of space, so that you can look with fresh eyes.

The painting, of Feasegate in York, is a an example of getting wrapped up, making mistakes, and not spotting them until I did a little 'proof-reading'. The painting was fun to do, and generally went quite well. It wasn't until I had finished for the day, cleaned up, and had sat and watched a little Desperate Housewives (read my Kindle) with Archie, that I spotted the problem with the perspective. Look at the first 'finished' version, and compare the figure behind and to the left of the central figures, to the figures in the background to the right. Wrong size on the right. It worked in the same way as the Mona Lisa (hence the title to this post) - if you block off one side of the background, it worked, or block of the other side, it worked.......just not with both showing together.

I adjusted it this morning. Unfortunately the figures in the background now look, to me anyway, like zombies from 'dawn of the living dead' (second part of the title)! Sara said I should leave it as a quirky feature.

Let me know what you think

The name Feasegate comes from the Norse Fe-Hus mean cow house, and Gate meaning street. This is the street that the 18C artist William Etty was born and lived on, his father being a baker and confectioner, famous for selling ginger bread.