All Types, All Kinds

Today I was able to paint for a full 5 hours and it felt great! I got back from my honeymoon yesterday and was itching to get back to painting the diptych that I started before I left. I was hoping to finish it today, but no such luck. I needed the paint to completely dry before I could add some sharp accents that both sides of the panels really needed and it wasn't going to happen today since the paint wasn't drying fast enough. I was able to work on the texture of the blanket for the girl on the left, though. It looks like an itchy, wool blanket based on the photograph and I wanted to make sure that I got that texture across. It still need a bit more work but just looking at it is making me itch. 

While that diptych was drying, I also started a new painting. There's just too much to do before open studios to sit and watch my paint dry.  After working on this painting a bit, I've decided that I LOVE painting women with deep lines on their faces. These faces are much more interesting and exciting for me to paint than the young girls with their smooth faces I have done in other paintings. When the face is too smooth, as is the case with children and teens, I find that the faces don't have enough contrast and start to look too cartoony and less real life-like. You know how I feel about cartoony faces. Hate them. There's just something much more interesting to look at and paint when I see wrinkles and deep lines on a face that obviously has experienced life. Women of all ages should be celebrated, not just the young pretty ones and I like to think that I have covered a pretty wide range of types in my work. Women of all ages and sizes have made it into my paintings. Some of my most favorite pieces that I have done have been of older women and I am really enjoying my latest one. That's not to say that I won't paint a pretty girl. I do paint them, and enjoy it, but there's nothing like an interesting photo of a woman with some life lived in her.