Whole Earth Woman

Whole Earth Woman, 24 x 24 in., acrylic on board

I did this painting one day when my painting class was canceled. Usually I try to work on a lot of collage and alternative uses of media during class. This particular day I had already been painting quite a bit so after some unsuccessful collage brain storming I leafed through my last resort collage mecca--The Whole Earth Catalogue.

This amazing antique store find is kind of like an old Sear's catalouge for hippies. It has weird remedies, odd how-to's, books about tribal education. Just think 50's quirk gone hippie crunch. This image is from a profile of a woman in my catalouge. I do not remember the context, I clipped it before I paid attention to its surroundings.

Detail 1

The style of painting is very similar to the portrait sketch series I did while living in Perugia. You can view a handful of those on my etsy site. These paintings are all quick sketches meant more as color and shape studies than creating a perfect resemblance of the subject. The others were done in oils instead of acrylic so it too a little bit of adjustment. I did end up going at a drying area (the lips) with my palette knife to rub out a mess before it dried. Acrylic just dries SO fast.

Detail 2

I like the drips. I like the translucent washes. I like the blue/purple. I like the woman and I think I can do more with her. I get hooked on subjects. My poor friend Bettylou has the most interestin face and she sat as my model for hours in Perugia. I talk about that more in a description of a portrait sketch of her on etsy.

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Some News:

*Chad and I made my business card!
*I have a potential space to hang but I need big paintings so I might be filling my TINY apartment with very large canvases.
*Chad found a program that takes still shots every (name increment of time). He suggested I have my computer film me making a painting and then post it on youtube. It took me a minute to digest the idea but now I am really excited. I'll post it once it happens.

Now that I am posting all that I have to stick to it!

THANK YOU to everyone who signed up for my blog. As of Monday I had 19 but now I have 20! I am so appreciative of all the support!!!!!