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| Catch Oil/Canvas 14 x 10 |
Personal evolution keeps me working, keeps me interested, keeps me painting. During the past couple of years, I found myself less interested in working from a life model with its inherent reality and emotion, which is inevitably connected to the sitter's openness and disposition. Often, in group situations(which is economical to be sure), costumes are added for visual interest. But those costumes were, in a sense, distancing, especially those that are historical or overly romantic. Or especially, for me, those involving military uniforms. And so, I have been using old family photographs as reference. These allow me great freedom in their interpretation and a sense of connectedness that results in commitment. My goal is to reduce the amount of given detail to fairly simple shapes, especially in the visage, in order to make that figure more universal, more approachable. Definitely not a portrait. "Catch" was painted from an old family photograph of my father at an early age. The resultant joy from a young fisher-boy is, I think, timeless. I am pleased.
