Here’s a link to the Video for the November Member’s Show at the State of the Art Gallery. I have five pieces hanging – the Jillian Portrait, finally finished, and four landscapes done on location at the St. Lawrence and in Chautauqua during the last month.
I am currently working on three more portraits. There is a good start on Julia, a Couch surfing guest, a third try at Susan, my daughter, and another pass of paint on the portrait of Andrejs that I started way back in January. Each portrait that I start, and each revision makes me more sensitive to the nuances of color and structure. I am using a brush, and trying to be very accurate. It is amazing how a minuscule inaccuracy,for example, a nose that is an eighth of an inch too wide or long creates a jarring perception of wrongness. We as human beings are that tuned in to the tiny variations that make us able to identify each other. With the landscapes, I can happily edit or even make things up, removing a branch or shifting it over to satisfy the needs of the composition. No such freedom with the human face if we want to recognize our friend or relative. It is a little nerve wracking to paint so slowly, and to see things reveal themselves after I thought I saw it all. Humbling, to be honest.
