Framing the Snow Angel

Here are a few recent photos from my studio. Gilding the frame for "Snow Angel" took quite a bit of work--none of it too difficult, but due to the scale, it just took a long time. In the end, I'm very pleased with how this looks. The last stages of a painting are always a challenge for me. Staying focused in order to finish loose ends can really seem tedious. I was encouraged to read about Lucien Freud's feelings on this subject in Martin Gayford's "Man with a Blue Scarf: On sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Freud". Fortunately there's the reward of placing the painting in a finished frame and seeing it freshly again. After all the hours of thinking about an image and then the subsequent realizing of the painting, this is a sweet moment that I cherish. 

The painting is off to Dowling Walsh Gallery on Friday, so today I will turn my attention back to a couple of nearly completed portraits while the snow angel serenely watches over me. 

Layover

Last week was an unusual one creatively speaking. It's always hard to sustain a creative thread while away from the studio; when I found myself stuck for over an hour in an airplane on the tarmac in Charlotte, NC I was not pleased.  Having listened to the audiobook of Joshua Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein" for a while, I needed a break, so I pulled out my sketchbook and drew out a few ideas that I'd been thinking about recently.

Upon my return to Maine I was greeted (fortuitously from a snowman point of view--though not from a human driving point of view) with a heavy dose of new fallen snow. With schools cancelled, I knew that one of my favorite models might have some time to spare, so I called her and arranged for a session. This last image in this group is the result of working with her. One can see the roughness of the first sketched idea take a more naturalistic turn.

So, bear with me, you may well see the evolution of a painting in real time.