One Artist's Journey

Castles in my Mind - 18" x 14" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $500

I am really trying to loosen up to be able to create pure stream-of-consciousness abstracts. I started out doing this one, drawing lines and shapes as they came into my mind. I erased some lines and added more and before I knew it, I had come up with this castle. Why are my free flow drawings turning into castles? Any psychoanalysts out there? It might be interesting to look into.

I am reading a book about Modigliani right now and it focuses on the neurosis and mental instabilities of Modigliani and some of his contemporaries. When I die, will people look into my art to decide who I was and whether I was mentally unstable or not. I am sure there is something to it, but some of it is a bit of a stretch.

"Big Daddy" - 12" x 12" Acrylic and graphite on Massonite - $200

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 2
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 26

I painted much more freely today. I fixed the canvas (board) from yesterday and I think it looks OK. I have a problem with faces. I can draw them just fine, but when I paint them, it gets all messy.

I went back over some old art I had done of faces and realized the best ones are just a series of shapes that I then outline and fill in with whatever color feels right. I tried that today on both these faces.  Again, they are OK. Just like most artists, I am my harshest critic.

I did, however, try to remember that painting is all about having fun and letting the inner child express itself. That made it easier to just let go and “have fun.”

I know why artists do self portraits. They are their own best and most willing model. It isn’t that they are stuck on themselves. I would much rather paint other things, but if I need to paint a face, it might as well be mine. It is probably the only face that artists don’t get tired of painting over and over again.

Postcards of Modigliani's Portraits in my studio

I really like Modigliani’s portraits. They are images of faces. Not all twisted and abstracted like Picasso’s, but they are drawn like a child might, but I really like them. That simplicity is what I am after.