Notes from an easel-part 24 (technically 25)

I worked some more on the new piece-finessing the details of the skull in layers, repainting the dolls face to give it that more Victorian look of the lips placed virtually beneath the nose, and developing the hare (brain) character.

I decided it was time to work the background, in the past the skulls have all been floating platforms in a turbulent sky, but this piece felt like it needed to be compressed into a space, the horror of confronting something larger than life in a claustrophobic setting, and so I've placed it in an old attic playroom. As this painting evolves, it becomes more and more of a statement as some requiem for childhood-a loss of innocence.
I'm liking the process of working on the heavily primed surface more, although I'm still not convinced-there is something to be said for the way I was working before, a smoother finish, darker and muted from working on virtually raw canvas, which no doubt, Francis Bacon would contest with a screaming pope or two, were he still alive.