Where to begin ….. Hearing in colour!

I suppose I need to begin in this lifetime ( there have been a few 😂) . I Don’t remember a time when painting wasn’t a part of my life. I dont know what it feels like not to paint. Im 54 now and having been painting all of my life. I suppose a good start might be one of my early paintings from around 1982 when I was 13. I discovered Monet.

Up until this time my paintings had been in watercolours and this was my first painting in oils on board of Monets The Poppy fields. I painted this because my mother loved poppies.

1981 by Michelle Hynes titled Homage to Monet

Oil on canvas board 60 cm x 42 cm

“Claude Monet painted The Poppy Field in 1873 on his return from the United Kingdom (in 1871) when he settled in Argenteuil with his family until 1878. It was a time that provided the artist with great fulfillment as a painter..”

I loved colour ! Monets Poppy fields drew me to them but the tones were more subdued. I wanted brighter more vibrant tones so my palette was loaded with yellows ( this has stayed with me for some reason ) i still lean towards yellow and orange tones in my work.

I had no idea about painting the faces so I just didnt. As a young teenager I read everything I could about Monet in the local library and ( we didn’t have computers back in the day ) from my dads set of encyclopaedias.

I painted everything I could find that had colour . Colour wasn’t just confined to my paintings it was in my writings , I wrote poetry and colour featured strongly and I was learning to play the piano so some of the pieces I was playing I heard in colour ( sounds crazy but true) Beethovens Moonlight sonata was a deep blue , Edvard Greigs Morning was a pale green . I thought of everything in terms of colour and still do .

Why not subscribe to get my updates