Michelle Tappin-Davis

I love working on site particularly en plein air. Therefore my medium is acrylic because of its ability to dry fast. I enjoy its versatility as I can paste it on like butter, apply it in thin layers like onion skin and manipulate it to create a variety of textures. My paintings are for the most part, representational and there is always a narrative, sometimes explicit and other times, subtle. I tend to include human figures in my paintings, having done many drawings from the live model and I enjoy weaving a story around them. I pay great attention to my colour palette, creating my colours carefully to generate the right mood. The contrast between light and dark, the interplay of light and shadow in my work is usually high key, although I also love the subtlety of dappled or diffused light. My style is distinctive and I work mostly from observation.