I want to paint like a person...yin:yang

Grande Dame   oil/canvas   30 x 40 x 1.5

For more years than I can count, the voice inside me declared that I wanted to paint like a man.  Why?  Because I loved the certainty, the broad loose brushstrokes and the bravado that seemed to ooze from the work that I admired so very much.... all painted by men.  My inspirations came from such painters as:  H. Craig Hanna, Alex Kanevsky and Randall Tiedman. I must add that there are many local, regional and national artists whose work I enjoy, but inspiration goes a step further into enticement, excitement and stomach flutters.  Time has passed.  There are now so many women artists whose work is inspiring to me:  Stanka Kordic; Rimi Yang; Jeannie McGuire; Jenny Saville and Carla O'Connor.  These female artists are, for me, grandes dames.  For the first time ever, for me, I can honestly say that gender-bias has been removed from the equation.  I want to paint like a person.

"Grande Dame" was first painted from a reality....everything in its place using local color.  Boring, boring, boring.  After a year of living with it, I attacked it with my own sense of aesthetics.  I am relieved.  I am purged.  I am totally happy with this work.

Grande Dame has been included in the 36th Annual Art Exhibition sponsored by The Fairmount Center for the Arts.

  June 3 - June 14

8400 Fairmount Road   Novelty, Ohio

Express Yourself...

Grande Dame   oil/canvas   30 x 40 x 1.5

I am the happiest when my work reflects who I am....my own personal recipe of design expressed through paint.  In the past, I have painted what is in front of me, especially en plein air, using local color, hard edges and pretty much what would be seen from a photograph.  The result has been a great dissatisfaction and uneasiness.  "Grande Dame" was originally painted from photos taken from a Victorian home.  Its title was "Gabled".  Despite the fact that it was, in my opinion, a respectable work, it didn't thrill me.  It did not represent my own ideas, my own interpretation.  After a year had passed and it was time for varnishing, I decided that I just couldn't preserve it as it was.  I couldn't wait for the initial destruction.  It sat in my studio for a very long time.  By then I had deleted all photo references.  It took four sessions of discovery and interpretation.  It was rechristened "Grande Dame".

While I am certain that there are those who prefer the first version, I owe it to myself to be myself.  Not painting to an audience.  

I felt as if I had come home.  At long last.