"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.