A Portrait Process

More scanned photos from the (before digital) "work photos" box. My process of portraiture,  including my use of prussian for underpainting. Preliminary pencil drawing can be seen tacked to the wall behind painting in progress. This five subject portrait is from 2007.

Seven Years of River

The other day I went into a box of "work photos"- before I ever had a digital camera. Quite interesting, haven't looked for a time. I found a photo of the first river I ever painted- back of photo stamped March '04- in the style of the "Storm Series". I think it's revealing to view the first, a middle, the most recent River ('11) to see how I progressed, changed, with seven years of study. I really loosened up and became so expressive. It still is an endless subject.

Blast from the Past Humor I

Changed Display

I changed my portrait display at the RRCA yesterday- removed Seaweed Man and replaced it with "210 Hours",  2003- 26W x 33H. "210 Hours" was a requested portrait by my daughter, right subject of right painting, and her friends. I logged the hours it took to create, including underpainting and high gloss varnish (very difficult on "black"). There exists a disparity in the value of an artist's hard work and what the public- at least here- is willing to pay. At $1 per square inch- cheap- the painting should sell for $860. At $5 an hour- not even minimum wage- the painting should sell for $1050.........

The Other Sargent Studies

I'm home waiting for a new refridgerator, so thought I'd post the other nine Sargent drawings:)....

RRCA Center Member Show 2012

I am participating in the 2012 RRCA Center Member Show, Witt Gallery, January 20th - February 12th. The new director, Liz Nicklaus, and I, chose three of the '03 Sargent drawings series (12 in the series) as my new work is not quite ready and the Sargent drawings haven't been shown yet. These are large scale studies done in charcoal and white pastel or acrylic on brown paper. It was a fun and deceptively challenging study as Sargent's model poses are quite intricate. I photographed the series yesterday morning, the blue corners are coffee cups.     

Some Window Elaborations, Early?