Father & Son - 120.0cm x 90.0cm - Acrylic on Canvas - May 2015

My new portrait painting is of Ed Quintrell and his son in an outdoor scene.  This painting is a continuation of my portrait series, combining colour-field backgrounds and gestural figure portraits in the foreground.  The choice of background colour represents the essence and mood of the portraits figurative subject. 
This time I decided to add more illustrative detail into the background scene, especially as there were two figures to draw your eye in the foreground. To contrast with this, I altered the hue of the background colours to a complementary combination of a light pastel yellow and purple.
I avoided working up the painting too heavily, by keeping as many areas as possible loose and gestural, which meant it was even more important to maintain accurate mark making to capture both the likeness of Ed and his son, and to keep the true spirit of the moment.