Four Minus One - Progress 1 (and 2)

Thinking of the title for my latest pieces is quite hard because it's in the territory of the cliché: missing my spouse.

I really like aspects of 'Victorious' and I wanted to further explore these in more paintings. The subject I thought could be mine and my wife's hands together since I was quite taken with the hands in 'Victorious'. But over the next month we have commitments which mean we won't have much time together at all - not even enough time to take some reference photos, so I realised I'd have to wait a month at least before even starting this idea. When I have an idea, I like to start on it as soon as possible, to capture the inspiration and enthusiasm which comes along, so I realised I would have to use myself as the subject, which I thought was quite tragic and lonely, so I thought I might as well make that part of the works - so I'm trying to portray a feeling that I'm missing my wife through the simple subject of hugging nothing.

These are images of the first stage - the monochromatic cadmium red deep for all the darkest areas.

Progress 1 - all four paintings

Progress 2 - "Four Minus One (O)"

Progress 2 - "Four Minus One (R)"

Progress 2 - "Four Minus 2 (E)"

Progress 2 - "Four Minus 2 (Z)"

The title is quite tricky since 'missing someone' has been done many times. Almost any title has already been sung, so I'm using the working title of 'Four Minus One': four images of me being without the most important person in my life.

It's all so dramatic :)