I found an absolutely fantastic book yesterday at University Art Supply: Color in Contemporary Painting: Integrating Practice and Theory by Charles LeClair. The manager who checked me out knows me and my works. She said, “Dawn you don’t need this.” I chuckled at her flattery. I said, “It never hurts to look at the work of other artists.” The truth is, I need exactly books like this. This one is much like watching a fascinating slide lecture in which points about how color is used are supported with image after image. The text is utterly engaging and readable.

I am learning so much. I am getting so many ideas about color, composition and technique as I plot the series of paintings I want to do.

I want to make dozens of paintings of my boyfriend Vlady’s face. His is no ordinary face. He is handsome, certainly; but what makes him special is his extraordinary expressive ability. Here are 60 examples from photos I have taken of him, in chronological order over the past year:

He is wonderfully goofy. Give him food or a mirror (or both) and he takes off. He is a positive ham in front of a camera. Sometimes he reminds me of a Muppet.

This kind of expression will be pretty much impossible to capture from direct observation. I will mainly rely on my photographs.

However, I am mulling over all kinds of possibilities about how to paint these wonderful faces. Smooth and highly realistic? Painterly and highly expressionistic? In high key colors? Cartoony? I have so many options I’d like to try. Perhaps each painting in the series will be a new experiment.

What I am not interested in is “high concept.” I’m not trying to sending any messages or break any boundaries. I just want to make art that is fun to do and fun to look at. Vlady is my muse.

Comments (0) | Permalink

Comment on this post below

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.