lucian freud

i have posted about lucian freud before but being one of my absolute favourite artists, a couple of posts is just not enough. his work is so inspiring to me! i find his paintings so honest and full of energy. the confident, thick paint strokes and colours are bold and literal. his work makes me want to do portraits. to paint people. this is something i struggle with - a kind of fear of failing to be true to the subject - both in terms of their personality and their biological form. freud does this so well. both his oil paintings and stunning etchings are so intense in their candour.

freud paints people who he is close to in life but was also once asked to paint the queen. its interesting how he chose to paint such a grand figure on such a small canvas (23.5cm x 15.2cm)!

freud is also known as part of the 'london School of artists' along with michael andrews, frank auerbach (portrait by freud above), francis bacon, r. b. kitaj and leon kossoff - a group of artists who each in their own way took great interest in the human figure. wonderful.

i recently bought this book on freud and since reading through it a couple of days ago i am so excited about starting to work on people!