I have always been drawn to art that tells you more, the longer you look at it. I compose my work like a story, with chapters that unfold over time. You could hang one of paintings, look at it every day, and still see some tiny detail you missed. You could focus on one part of the landscape, a face, a hand, a small area that imparts such meaning that you can’t believe you missed it.
“Golden Days” is a five-foot-wide oil painting that brings together many of the elements (read: chapters) that I have played around with over the years. The striped shape-shifting tents that I first saw on Martha’s Vineyard are here, but this is the first painting that envisioned a tent interior. I imagined the dreamlike figure inside the tent as a psychological extension, maybe alter-ego, of the girl in the foreground. I liked this painting so much that it hangs in my home. Of course, I do have a long history of beloved paintings moving from my walls into the homes of collectors.
Below is the test run I started for the big painting I’m working on, Singing at Dusk. I found it challenging to paint the woman singing - she didn’t pose for me that way, and she is on the West Coast, so I had to use my imagination. I am working on her head in this small painting, so I can get it right. I did the same with Temptation, which you can read about in my previous Substack blog, How to Eat a Peach.
Sketch for Singing at Dusk, 11” x 14”.
Beginning the underpainting for Singing at Dusk, 48” x 36”.
I just bought and put together a new easel so I can work on both paintings at once. I’m glad my studio is big enough for that!
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