Mini Miss

This little portrait of my niece posing with me at a little teahouse my sisters and I attended. Reminds me of the painting done by James Whistler though I wasn't thinking that when I snapped the ref photos for the painting. We love having tea and finger foods and this particular house let us try on hats in the hat room. I have also pics of little Ashleigh with a big fuchsia hat on that I will be painting. So many subjects and possibilities...

"Mini Miss" 5 x 7 inches, oil on panel

David's Pose

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 I have been working on a few paintings that are coming along well and also touching-up older ones that I now see flaws in. Its funny how you can be blind to flaws in your artwork and yet later see where you missed the mark...kind of like life. Often I find that I am so hungry for the experience of diving into a painting that I don't really do enough to prepare. It is however, important to do preliminary studies, especially for  larger works -- something that master painters often did. Today I have uploaded a portrait study of my son, Dave. I am fond of using my children as subjects of my paintings. After giving him a buzz cut, I asked him to pose for me -- to avoid the look of a snapshot, I asked for a serious expression. Dave is good at giving me intense looks ... along with the expressive face, comes a big soft heart. He is infatuated with the military so am thinking of working that theme into the final work.