Latest Painting

[Mac 0]

This is my latest painting:

Moving Day

Oils on Masonite panel

24 x 18"

2011

I've written this about the way it looks:

(Finally a day that makes it possible to get the photo of this painting closer to how it really looks. As you know, colors dry unevenly. Some faster than others. Differences in all manner of things. Once varnished all that looks "blotchy" etc. comes together. Even for the artist it's always a magic moment the day he varnishes his painting and sees it as he intended.)

Thanks for looking.

[Word Man 0]

I have no critical comments to offer other than I very much enjoy looking at this painting. Her hair in particular captivates me. I assume it takes a great deal of skill to create such detail, and it seems to convey her character wonderfully. I'll continue to gaze. Thanks for posting this.

[jordanz 0]

I love this. I can imagine spending long hours plumbing the depths of this. What is the girl thinking? She looks anything but happy. Is it fear? Sadness? Both? I don't recognize the painting on the wall. Is that an allusion to a famous painting? Did the girl paint it?

[Mac 0]

Thank you very much Word Man and jordanz.

The hair. The artist must know how to apply many glazes and scumbles for the overall color tones. Then it's a rather tedious process with thin brushes for almost every strand I wish to include.

What is the girl thinking? Happy, fear, sadness.

Here are my conscious thoughts:

I intend no fear nor do I see it. Sadness. Perhaps a touch for she is leaving her known place, and taking with her all that she values. I imagine that the painting will be the last thing she reaches for to bring along. Furthermore, I imagine that she has built the frame herself--it's not perfectly crafted, something an intelligent child might make. Three images in the painting are inspired by Rembrandt. The far left shows (my own stylized version, actually invented by me but inspired by) Rembrandt's drawing "Woman Carrying a Child Downstairs". On the far right is the woman in Rembrandt's "The Risen Christ At Emmaus". To its left is part of the Christ figure in the same painting. Only I used the tiniest brush I've got and great magnifying lenses to paint in a cigarette in His mouth. It does show an orange with yellow highlight to represent the lit tip of the cigarette. In the middle is, yes, from one of my own, “Autumn Street”.

Here I used as reference both my original painting and a photograph of our daughter at around age 12 that I painted into the “Autumn Street” scene. This is intended to anticipate the kind of world to where she’s moving, a colorful, sunny world.