Susanne du Toit

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Yesterday was the last day of Painting the nude at the @artacademy. I will be teaching Cultural Inspirations next term looking at the raft of Medusa, William Blake, Samuel Beckett, Die Brücke, New Objectivity and much more. I will also be doing a workshop in Paris 12-16 June. Please contact Patricia.devitton@orange.fr if you would like to join us.

One of the parts of the Painting Women Writers project that I have enjoyed so much are the contributions from the authors and their responses to the portraits. This is my portrait of writer and cultural historian Lara Feigel, whose extraordinary piercing eyes reminded me of the iconic photo by Steve McCurry (Afghan Girl). When Lara saw the painting at her second sitting, the face was a shock for her! A small excerpt from her in the book: “I’m used to looking in mirrors, able to adjust my expression. Here the expression was unfamiliar, and the sharp contrasts between different parts of my face disturbed me. I raised the question as gently as I could: were those shadows under my eyes, or bags?” I won’t spoil the rest of her wonderful essay and tell you how she came to a resolution with the portrait, so to read more about Lara’s response to the painting, please go to the link in my bio to pre-order the book! 💙

#paintingwomenwriters #larafeigel #susannedutoit #eiderdownbooks #femaleartist #femaleauthor #womenwriters #portrait #femaleportrait #newbook

As it will be Mother’s Day this weekend😊: My portrait of Alice Strickland, author and curator. When I arrived at her house, Alice was in the midst of all-consuming motherhood, welcoming me at the door with her 20-month-old daughter, Helena, sleeping in her arms. Seeing Alice at the outset of her journey as a mother unleashed a flood of memories and emotions in me. I recalled a line from Anne Truitt which I read in my twenties and never forgot: “Motherhood has been as central to my life as a stove is central to a household in the freeze of winter.” ❣️

#paintingwomenwriters #alicestrickland #eiderdownbooks #femaleauthors #femalepainters #susannedutoit #portraits #paintingwomen #mothersday #motherhood

A gouache and colouring pencils drawing of Alicia Foster, novelist, art historian, and curator.
Alicia had a beautiful Bengal cat, so paintable that I drew her three times in this preliminary study!
My technique for the portraits was the same for each painting in the series: I projected the most successful drawing onto the canvas, allowing me to judge how best the subject could occupy the pictorial space. And this is the point where the discrepancies in how I have drawn the body’s proportions become glaringly obvious. I almost always draw the head too large.
But over time I’ve learned that it’s better to embrace the awkwardness of my first response to the sitter, rather than making adjustments afterwards.

You can read more about my painting process and see further preliminary drawings in the book!

#paintingwomenwriters #femaleauthors #femalepainters #portraits #portraiture #aliciafoster #susannedutoit #eiderdownbooks #gouache #preliminarydrawing

My portrait of Dreda Say Mitchell MBE, novelist, broadcaster, journalist and campaigner. @dredamitchell

I detail in my book that the most difficult part of this painting was the facial expression. I was struggling to paint Dreda with a serious look, since this just wasn’t how I remembered her, so I decided to change tack and capture her distinctive laughing expression. Painting laughter is always fraught, as failure to capture the vitality of emotion can result in a stilted expression. In this case, though, I felt laughter was crucial to representing Dreda’s character.

#paintingwomenwriters #susannedutoit #dredasaymitchell #femaleauthor #femalewriter #femalepainter #femaleportrait #portraiture #eiderdownbooks

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