Kim Longhurst - The Painted Blackbird

Kim Longhurst - The Painted Blackbird I am an illustrator, designer, maker, curator and painter. This year I took time off from my beloved blog to make more. I step back and squint. Morrigan. And rage.

I wanted to try out oil painting and ceramics. I have been very lucky to have two wonderful teachers Grace Kotze for painting and June Deavin for ceramics. I have always loved portraits and have focused on closely cropped found images, printed out on my very shoddy printer. This image with pixels and lines has led to a style that is very different from my illustrative and commercial work but is so

mehow a very free reflection of my love of paintbrushes and colour. Started with oils and have gone back to acrylic, I work too fast for oils. I find the waiting for 'paint to dry' impossible. I wrote this about the painting I did of Thando Hopa:


love

Portrait of Thando Hopa, photographic reference by Justin Dingwall (with permission)

Close up, so close that I am feeling only the swipe of the brush and not thinking at all other than what mix, what perfect amalgam will fit that blown up, f***ed up, exploded pixel. Sometimes the stroke is precise, the blunt cut of thick paint, brutal. Sometimes it is so wet and cries, cries in flawed runnels that slide across the canvas, dripping randomness into a shape that is what it should be. And layers, like the bones of long dead sea creatures, softly fit themselves together, vertebrae by vertebra until they make something close to warmth, close to life and breath and fill themselves with puffy corpuscles that float across the eye, almost there and then there and then gone again. Close again and I must be patient like a saint, like a soft dimpled hand, but I can’t because I must suffer an absence of control, I must unsheathe the furies. Rage against the tight fist of closed eye, shut down heart, blank brain beaten. Sometimes I chew gum and that gnashing of teeth is enough to force my hand. I’ll be the clever, cool, trustworthy, loyal, spontaneous, light hearted twin. To overthrow the regime of thoughts, so I can just paint colour as it is. I just want to paint colour as it is.

A new illustration Water, Dust and Ashes
13/09/2017

A new illustration Water, Dust and Ashes

Some portraits that I have completed recently, two were commissions and two were from a painting workshop I attended run...
03/04/2017

Some portraits that I have completed recently, two were commissions and two were from a painting workshop I attended run by Grace Kotze.

A little illustration for all my favourite gals
18/05/2016

A little illustration for all my favourite gals

Back in the studio yesterday, can't believe it's nearly been a year since I painted any of my 'Girls', I have been busy ...
11/03/2016

Back in the studio yesterday, can't believe it's nearly been a year since I painted any of my 'Girls', I have been busy with lots of other stuff, big projects for The Curators and much clay wrangling. It was fun!

It's been nearly a year
11/03/2016

It's been nearly a year

I have not posted any paintings for a while because I was working on my submission for the Sanlam Portrait Award 2015. I...
14/08/2015

I have not posted any paintings for a while because I was working on my submission for the Sanlam Portrait Award 2015. I did a large scale acrylic painting, 1.2 m x 1.8 m, of the truly gifted artist Louis de Villiers aka Skullboy. I sadly did not make the cut for the competition but loved every minute of making this painting and am very grateful to Louis and to Roger Jardine for doing the shoot of the sitting. Thank you also to Grace Kotze my painting teacher for undertaking the wild ride it took to deliver the painting on a very rainy day.

Sunny Girl, acrylic on canvas paper 406 x 508 mm
05/03/2015

Sunny Girl, acrylic on canvas paper 406 x 508 mm

https://vimeo.com/120570100
27/02/2015

https://vimeo.com/120570100

This is "HOW TO Kim Longhurst" by inyourspace on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

https://vimeo.com/120579523
27/02/2015

https://vimeo.com/120579523

Kim Longhurst, Mamma, maker, gardener, baker - lives in a 1930's semi with the keepers of her heart - Scott an extreme typographer and her treasure the Swan princess.…

Back to painting, Spoilt Girl, Acrylic on canvas paper
23/01/2015

Back to painting, Spoilt Girl, Acrylic on canvas paper

Worked on more layers of skin tone on the face to create areas of shadow, still need more work on the jaw area to soften...
29/11/2014

Worked on more layers of skin tone on the face to create areas of shadow, still need more work on the jaw area to soften the shadows there.

Started a new portrait this week, playing around a little. Took a photo of the beautiful Syethemba, made a rough digital...
20/11/2014

Started a new portrait this week, playing around a little. Took a photo of the beautiful Syethemba, made a rough digital collage in photoshop then did the underpainting in acrylic. Got about 2 more sessions to finish.

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