Oui La La, Oil on Panel, 5x7, 2020

Funeral, Oil on Panel, 11x14, 2020

Well Dressed, Oil on Linen, 5x7, 2020

Finished (maybe). A painting is complete when any change adds nothing of interest. But how is that every known?

The year 2020 has been about changing direction. I felt like I had come to a dead end with the paintings. I was doing the same painting over and over. It was time for a change and the COVID intrusion offered an opportunity. I have worked with the face and figure before and I was able to mine paint to retrieve some images that I like. But while I am attempting to attract mystery over ambiguity combined with a wrestling match with paint, I wanted more detail in the content. Images stolen from internet sources offers neatly packaged anonymous figures and faces to use as a resource.

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The painting sketch boards have been a helpful exercise for developing illusions that suggest human features. Its all paint and shapes but the mind is invited to create human forms. Too much line, shape and color and it becomes abstract, too much illusion and it loses its life. Sketch boards are a way of working out these problems without the adherence to a composition. Or, a lazy way of sketching without having to turn to a new sheet.

Oil Sketch, Foam Core, 12x12, 2020

Figure In Closet, Oil on Panel, 5x7, 2020

Red Dress, Oil on Panel, 5x7, 2020

White Phone Call, Oil on Paper, 11x14, 2020

Mr Swift, Oil on Panel, 5x7, 2020

More sketch boards. using screen capture images.

Party Goers, Sketch Board excerpt

Phone Call, Oil on Panel, 11x14, 2020

The first marks. Fast brush work begins a small painting. I am using commercial canvas panels but they need to be prepared more completely oil prime. Too much weave steals the mark.

Small Paintings

Oil Sketch, Panel, 12x18, 2020

Painting sketch board. Always in progress. Notice areas that have been removed while some are still other construction and others dare not be touched.

A smaller section becomes a piece of its own.

Oil Sketch, Foam Core, 8x18, 2020