This is a companion piece to the ‘Solitary Figure on a bench in Bruges’ that I have recently completed and shared the process on this blog. I wanted it to be the same scale and had a stretcher made to the same dimensions. The composition is similar and there is a figural element suggested in the same location on the canvas as the figure in the previous piece. There the similarities end though. The influences come from all sorts of sources from the glowing embers and splits of coals in my fire to very old photographs. I never copy literally, but use them to contextualise a piece. It’s making me think about composition, scale of elements and brushstrokes, and when to stop all at once. The piece is not complete, but I am going to be careful not to ‘overdo’ things. Here are some details and the whole painting so far.