Soldiers in the dust. PAGE 1 commentary included

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These are all brilliant paintings. What size are they?

Quite a big picture this one....about 4 feet by 2 and a half feet. Most of the spaces they are shown in are very large so a small picture can be lost in all that. Just as well I like to work on a large scale.

It is my intention here to give a bit of a 'blow by blow' account of the development of a large oil painting specifically produced for the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. This is to hang in the Battalion headquarters of 2nd battalion and something,I hadn't realised, will travel with them to wherever they are posted. (They are packing up for another posting even as I write this) The picture above is the first figure of a series and is based on the photo of a Commando that I had in my database. The face is actually my Daughter's boyfriend Joe, who is about the right age for infantry and being a tolerant lad doesn't mind posing in a combat helmet and Comms. kit. I quite like to use people I know in my pictures as it gives them a kind of immortality. These oil paintings stay with units for as long as they exist and I regularly see pictures in the various messes that are three hundred plus years old. It would be great to think that my stuff may be around for as long,or longer than that. The idea I had,was to show the fellas exiting from a chinook helicopter and becoming less distinct as the figures recede into the dust kicked up from the landing. It was painted in oils on an oil primed Irish linen canvas . I started to use Irish Linen out of sentimentality as it is exactly the same material used to cover the tail surfaces of Spitfires and Hurricanes and aviation subjects was how I had 'cut my teeth' It has quite a fine weave and suits my detailed style, particularly after priming several times with sanding between coats. I often use Italian linen these days as they are similar products. The primer I used was oil based but instead of using plain white I added Raw sienna to the mix to give an underlying colour cast to the whole thing; the reasons for this will become clearer as I progress with this. The intelligent thing to do would be to paint the background first and superimpose the figures on top when dry, particularly the clearer figures in the fo