A face at rest, the moment just after letting go.

A face fills the panel, so close you could almost be sharing her breath. Her eyes are closed, and her expression is completely at rest. Colour moves across her skin like thoughts across a quiet mind: warm orange light, cool blue shadow and flushes of rose and violet, painted loosely. The last things I added were the highlights on her lips, brows and lashes, and that was when she really came to life. I wanted to paint the moment just after letting go, when there's nothing to add and nothing missing. This painting led me directly to my Stillness series.

Living with it

• A quiet focal point: a face at rest to come back to at the start and end of the day.
• Hangs without a frame on a hidden sub-frame, about 1.5 cm off the wall, so there's nothing between you and the painting.
• One of one. Every mark was made by hand, and it can't be repeated.

Details

• Size: 70 × 44 cm (27½ × 17¼ in), width × height
• Medium: oil on gesso-primed aluminium composite panel
• Series: Transcendence (II of III)

10% of original painting or limited-edition print (on the price excluding VAT) will be donated to YoungMinds via Work for Good. YoungMinds is a registered charity (1016968 / SC039700).