The Double Portrait

"Artist & Model "-version 2

 

This painting took it’s own sweet time. I sweated and swore my way through four months of it. At most turns in the road, it was perfect--until I tried to make it perfect. There were 34 distinct variations before I got to the final image. I was mesmerized by  the most egregious gaffes and couldn’t see them for days. The mistakes that remain in the final version have all been thought through. They now seem integral to the work.

The painting process was pretty evenly split between intention and discovery. I had a lot of high-flying ideas about the subject matter, most of which had to be cleared away to find the actual painting. For a while it turned into a kind of hi-octane Garden of Eden; both the artist and model were naked, glaring out at the viewer, that devil just beyond the canvas. Thankfully, I managed to find my way out of paradise and the painting got a little less feverish.

I set this one aside so many times; I gave up on it, over and over again—or so I thought—but it never completely gave up on me.

"Artist & Model "-version 4

"Artist & Model "-version 15

"Artist & Model -Double Portrait," oil on canvas,  36"x36"

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A Large-Scale Drawing, Revised

Here’s a revision of the 6’x9’ canvas I used in last month’s post. Some of the figures have been redrawn, the couch has turned into a garden bench and there are a number of value-shifts. My favorite additions are the seagulls, or bats, or giant wing-nuts in the sky.

"Figures In A Landscape #1-If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now," acrylic & tinted gesso on unstretched canvas, 6'x9'