In my galleries under children's portraits you will find two
images of Ben, a painting and drawing.
Ben left this life much too soon after only 14 months in this
world. I was given the honor to draw and
paint his image for members of his family which I pray have given them some
degree of comfort from his passing. As it turned out I had a request to do a
second drawing using the same image I had used for the first one. It was at times a curious feeling to 'copy'
my own work as it turned out. In most
portraits I rarely use anything from the background of the reference photo. The
background in both drawings was simply made up to show Ben running in a sunlit
field without a great deal of distraction from his image. Deciding whether to use the same background
theme or give into the urge to create something new puzzled me for a while but
in the end I decided to use basically the same theme. It was a new experience
for me to actually go back and use my own previous work as a reference piece. I
couldn't help but laugh to myself a bit. Btw, the image in this blog is the new
drawing. You can compare it to the original in the gallery section.
Another new experience for me is a self-portrait. For 2 years I have been asked when I was
going to get around to it and I always put it off. I have resisted it long enough and the
motivation now is to try something a bit different than the portraits I have
painted for my clients. In most cases it
was quite obvious the reference material was taken with the on camera flash or
the lighting was always the same bland look that is so devoid of any creative shadows. So now I won’t have anyone to blame but
myself if I don’t like it!
As the New Year draws closer I am itching to dive into
floral paintings. Karen does fabulous colored pencil and graphite drawings of
irises and other floral subjects, but since she is still working her day job
her time is limited. Hopefully, she will get a chance to publish her website soon. In the meantime, I plan on using
some of her lovely photos of her flowers in her garden for subject
matter.
And finally, landscapes.
We visited Crystal Bridges Museum twice, the last time during and
exhibit of the Hudson River School works. As you can imagine, I have been dying
to try my hand again at landscapes ever since. It has been over ten years since
my last landscape work. (Due to my day job I did no artwork from '05 to '10 when I met Karen. Her
encouragement brought me back to art.) Hopefully in a couple of months I will have one on the
easel. Btw, if you are within driving distance or you happen to be passing
through northwest Arkansas, you should visit Crystal Bridges Museum located in
Bentonville, Arkansas. Each time we have
visited we exhausted ourselves before we exhausted all the possibilities of the
museum. Everything about it is top shelf and first class and you owe it to
yourself to pay a visit. There is literally something there for everyone
from classical to modern abstract and everything in between. We will be back there again next spring.
