Sunday Drive

Sunday Drive

Oil on canvas, 16x16

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I started becoming interested painting people a couple years ago. It took a while for me to work up the courage and confidence enough to really try it.

It took me a while longer to realize that maybe I didn't need to focus on individual faces, and that maybe, just maybe, that would turn out to be a strength of these paintings instead of a weakness.

I've personally balked at buying portraits, feeling that I really don't want a stranger looking at me all the time. And if the portrait is of a person I know, chances are that it won't look like the person, or at least not like the person the way I know that person.

So, in much the same way that my buyers and I have accepted that houses that I paint generally don't have doors or windows, I guess I am accepting that - at least for now - my people won't have faces.

Interestingly, I'm not squeamish about painting dogs' faces! Eyes, noses, what have you - these don't scare or dismay me. Cows - about half the time they have eyes and delineated faces. Maybe there will be a transition eventually with people, but for the time being, I'm OK with them like this.

What I really set out to write about was the action, the motion, in these paintings. Guess that will wait for another post.

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Do you remember Kato, Inspector Clouseau's valet in the Pink Panther movies? Kato would hide and leap out at the inspector at all hours of the day and night, to sharpen Clouseau's reflexes, or so he said. Mostly, he made a giant, furniture-breaking mess whenever they tangled. Koko might be the canine version of Kato, pouncing over and over on Doc, whenever they're out in the yard. 

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Dog of the Day

It's Ginger, the dear old dog of Heather and Joe, friends from Maine. 

Ginger has had a good life, being well-loved, well-traveled, well-treated. 

And I think she likes winter, too. What a good girl. 

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A Final Thought

"Even at best talent remains a constant, and those who rely upon that gift alone, without developing further, peak quickly and soon fade to obscurity." 

- David Bayles and Ted Orland

"Art & Fear /Observations and the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking"