"Be Yourself" 7.5x7.5 inch original acrylic painting on wood. This is a new piece I finished today. It's a bit of a departure from my usual mixed media work, but I had the phrase "be yourself" running through my mind (I swear my paintings these days are probably more influenced by Nogin than anything else!), so I figured I would do something creative with it. :) If you can't indulge your whims as an artist, then where can you?
My favorite part about this painting is the way the wood of the support has become the tone of the little girl's face. I enjoyed this technique so much that I might just do my whole family with little slogans on each of their shirts. You'll be the first to know if this plan comes to fruition...
It's kind of fun to compare this new piece with some of my earlier work. Here is a portrait I did of my friend, Autumn Macintosh, several years ago based on a photo I took of here looking out the window in Venice.
"Autumn Meditation" 16x20 oil on canvas (original is sold).
The two of these paintings are so different, but they are both about the imagination and childhood in many ways. And, as in most of my paintings, there is an element of the surreal within the real.
