new drawing process

It took me a long time to find joy with my drawing, but I think I finally found it with soft pastels.

another new one but familiar

Our Immaculate Lady Pigeon, 24" x 18", 2012 acrylic, charcoal, soft pastel on canvas

This painting was once called my "first painting" a long, long time ago.   I couldn't bear to look at it anymore, so I started working on it again.  I heard Walton Ford in an interview once say that it takes a lot for a painting to stand the test of time.  If that's the case, then do I sell them as soon as the paint is dry (a gallerist's dream) or hold onto them for a while and wait and see if they stand up to time?

new painting

Addie, 48" x 60", acrylic, gesso, charcoal and soft pastel on canvas

I didn't work on the sculpture that inspired this painting for very long...actually probably only five days for ten hours in total.  But very shortly after I took the photo, I knew the colors and layout.  I only spent two days on this painting, about five hours in total.  The first day it took me almost three hours to draw the figure in charcoal onto the canvas and then use black gesso and pastel to fill in the bottom portion.  On the second day I attacked the figure and the top portion.  I had no idea it would take so little time, but there was a point when it felt ready.  The energy expended was exhausting, but the endorphins that coursed through me once the work was complete kept me from falling asleep.

It was this painting that created the title for the series: "Becoming."  It's the moment when you realize you're alive...that moment between life and death when eternity seems possible.  As humans become more robotic, enlightenment, even brief patches, is God.

new painting: hey zeus, maria

Hey Zeus, Maria, 60" x 36", Acrylic and charcoal on canvas

This one came from a sculpture of a model who has become a friend.  Again, I want to mix the mythic with the religious.  Can you guess what the title means?