Painting: Canada At One Fifty

Canada At One Fifty
Oil over gee-clee
a foot by a foot

August -- well, I've painted over it now . . . post it soon

Portrait

Today you have to prove yourself by recognizing a bunch of screwed up letters and numbers. Tomorrow it'll be how fast you react to a picture of beauty. Which is the opening scene of Bladerunner. Somebody asked me a while ago what I thought was a perfect movie and I said, Bladerunner. Well, it's only as good as The Rules Of Attraction. I mean it's good but . . .

Here is the portrait, finished.

Portrait

My brother and his spouse have asked me to do a portrait of her grandmother. They sent me some photos . . . I started with this oil painting (above)--to get to know my subject. Here it is not as terrifying as it looked at first and it's not quite as it is now (nearly finished).

The portrait itself came in two versions (below). On the left is her grandmother as a young lady; on the right she is more the age of a grandmother. Aron and Shawna preferred the one on the right (which is after all the better drawing of the two--much more lively.)

Portrait(s) for Aron and Shawna
Charcoal on paper

I was paid in verenika and cabbage rolls (two Mennonite favorites of mine). Actually, I was relieved that my portraits bore a likeness to the subject. I don't think I've ever done a portrait, at least not since I took up oil painting . . . now what to do with the oil painting? . . . I think I might leave it at a flea market with the many other amateur portraits I find there and see how it fares against the competition . . .

I'm only half-kidding. If I had the money I'd have bought those portraits I saw for a couple of bucks and repainted them with some pinache. How do you pronounce it?--pinnn-ash?

Maye I should be worried about my astigmatism.