Winter Rick

Winter Rick   oil/canvas   14 x 11 x .5

 There are many paintings of mon mari in my archives....and even more drawings.  I feel that I know his face better than my own.  I quickly snapped some photos of him as he descended the porch steps one wintry morning.  And this result is perhaps my favorite of him.  It is Rick through and through.  Everything sings of him:  the style of hat and how he wears it; his shallow cheek bones; the tilt of his glasses;  the cut of his beard; the style of his clothing.  As one would guess, the eye area was the most difficult to paint and the one carrying most of the weight of "likeness" in this pose.

So let it be a lesson to me, to you.  A successful portrait does not necessarily rely on two symmetrical eyes, a nose and a mouth.  Broad shapes tell the story as well.