‘Negro Spirituals’

Oil + Acrylic on watercolour paper

11 x 17 Inches

Negro Spirituals –

With this piece I wanted to try something a little more free, instead of having a preconceived idea in my head of what I wanted to paint I decided to try something more expressive and build on it as I went a long. I also wanted to focus on men in this piece, as I’d normally paint a female antagonist focusing on their beauty through strength, where as here I’ve focused on the beauty and strength of the male form through an expression of vulnerability so flipping my usual narrative. Negro Spirituals was the name given to the songs sung by the African Slaves who were brought over to the west as a form of expression and release. I felt this title fitting as there is a darkness to this piece and once I had painted the three figures my mind kept gravitating towards that as a title and from there I built on this idea with that concept in mind. The three figures, not so dissimilar in style to the more traditional style of African sculptures that I sometimes base some of my characters on have been painted in poses that could be seen as more feminine. I’ve completely stripped them of anything that could deem them as macho/hypermasculine to really emphasize their vulnerability and honesty.