I’ve been struggling with a portrait of my wife and baby, which I am doing in acrylic on canvas. It is the first proper portrait I have ever attempted to paint, but I am endlessly going over and over it, never quite figuring out where I am going wrong, and every improvement I try to make only makes the whole thing worse!

Anyway, to try and break this cycle of pain I started another portrait, with a totally different approach, just slapping the paint on roughly. It’s far from perfect, but I enjoyed the process, and I particularly like the lack of pressure, painting just for the sake of it, means that I am not at all precious about the result.

I am tempted to do a few of these to help develop my painting confidence. I was inspired by watching the BBC’s recent series of The Big Painting Challenge. 

Here is how it progressed!