”Subconscious Nose” by Sophie Huddlestone. (A cropped section of my first self portrait created in March 2018). The woman curled up on the nose is telling my subconscious to start a composite painting, instead of privately pondering ideas in the shadows. Im a happy hermit and when I’m talking to people my mind is distracted easily with rushes of unusual ideas, so I tend to use humour and one liners to hide my lack of attention and socially blend in. Like lifting the lid on a steaming kettle, the act of painting helps me to vent the conversations which shyness prevents. Even though my customers seem to prefer the whimsical cute animals to these weird artworks, it’s good therapy for me which out weighs the profit.

From watching ‘Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the year’ I have decided to experiment more with portraits. My lack of portraiture knowledge is very obvious at the moment so I may re-paint this next year to see if I have improved. I’m also working on combining oil paints with watercolours – just because I like to break the rules. Another aspect I’m battling is that part of me that says “paint as realistic as possible and make it look nice” rather than going with my gut instinct and simply create without inhibitions.

What is a composite painting? A very simple explanation, it’s a kind of weird painting, some bits look how they should look & other bits of the painting may look bizarre, at first you’d think it was a normal portrait until you look closer at the nose. Composite art is just a bit weird I guess. Thanks for reading my waffle, Artist Sophie H.