Thursday 21 July 2011

Autism - Signing "Please"

Painting Mikey, as I am sure I have gone on and on about, is devilishly tricky. And I am not a portrait artist! When Mikey is confused, often when he knows he needs to give a response to a question, and just does not understand, he signs "Please", more accurately "Please, please, please". I can see he did not understand what was required of him because his expression gives a fleeting glimpse of not knowing, confusion and sometimes hurt.
Mikey very often does use the signs he has learnt appropriately and his receptive language skills have blossomed but then there are times when his mind seems clouded, foggy as if Autism wraps a wet towel around his brain.

Autism Speaking, Oil on Canvas 18"x 24"


This painting is not yet complete, I am posting it on my blog now because I know it will take months of tweaking and fiddling before I am happy enough to call it done. I find lately I am focusing a lot more on painting emotively, I strive to evoke emotion in my work. Not only by subject matter but by brush strokes and use of colour. It is a lot of thinking and getting to the place of pain to bring it out and re-home it on canvas. After which I will drown my sorrows in a glass of milk, cause that's how I roll.
I am happily immersed in learning new techniques, playing with glazing and transparent colours....watching tutorials on YouTube, great stuff!

2 comments:

John Salmon said...

So far, so good Samantha. Be sure to post the next stage won't you? It will be interesting to see how it all comes together.

Go on, have a little glass of milk to celebrate getting this far.

Samantha Anne Hutchinson said...

Thanks John, yes I will post the next stage, cant say when that will be. I currently have 4 paintings on the go at the same time...makes things more interesting....hmmm milk!