My Hand

Few things are as challenging as drawing human hands. They are so complex architecturally and so dynamic - the slightest shift in one part can alter the whole. This is my own hand, drawn from life not a photograph.

I don't have an objection to drawing from photographs. Some work is too difficult to completely reject it as a tool. When I do use photographs I try to refer back to the real subject. Drawing from life is more challenging, of course, because of the shifting problem. I tend to believe that it is exactly this problem, or rather the resolution of this problem, that the life drawing feels more alive. A photograph captures the object and holds it unnaturally in that moment. The realist artist works to incorporate the ever changing scene into a balanced and believable view. There remains, however, a sense that there has been time spent and the nuance of each moment noted. The relationship is simply more developed.

Still working...

Still working. I thought I'd post this in case anyone was wondering if I'd disappeared.
The studio isn't heated. Brrrr. So I'm working on some decorative painting for my own home and portfolio. This is my kitchen ceiling. Excuse the electrical wires. The center is not lighter in color because of camera flash but that is how it is painted. My goal is to create a glow of light similar to the sun behind the clouds with the corner areas being darker. The painting itself is a work in progress and this is merely the underpainting. Cloud forms are just beginning to be formed. Right now it looks more like what one might see looking skyward if surrounded by a forest fire. (That's one plein air painting I probably won't try to do.)
Living with one's own work means that sometimes a work is always in progress. While working on this I keep thinking of Michelangelo's response to the Pope when he wanted to know when the Sistine Chapel ceiling would be completed. I think the answer was something like, "When it's finished."