My Other Blog

For those who are curious about my painting, I have started another blog called paul keating's paintings There you will find all of the 'digitally blurred' paintings I've done.

Again, for those who are curious I am using a new technique that plays on the Impressionist style. The French Impressionists like Monet were painting in a time that saw the invention of the camera. Traditional portraiture would never be the same as the camera excelled at realism. As a reaction, a group of painters started painting loose and rough strokes and focusing on light and colour.

When seen close up, Monet's Water Lilies are blobs of colourful paint. When you step back, your brain blurs the colours until they make sense and suddenly lilies floating in a reflective pool of water appear. This process is called optical blending.

Recently, in reaction to the overwhelming use of the digital camera, I started painting portraits that use optical blending and a pixel like brush stroke. Up close, some of the portraits fail to resemble people at all and at a distance a face appears.