The painting above is the second version of a still life that was started in a class. Rochester Art Club show entry rules prohibit class paintings, so I did scene again with the sea and clouds as background.
A young man in Jamaica who calls regularly often tends to be sad and frustrated, because he is brilliant, has Asperger’s syndrome, and is very much underemployed.
I sent him the photo of the painting above and he wrote back “I see serenity, that painting inspires comfort.”
Of course, I was happy that it fulfilled its intention. Still, I wanted to finish the first version.
The background originally was 1) all black. First I changed this into a 2) stone wall with an arch, then turned that into a 3) venetian bridge with a canal and boats and the frogs in the dish floating downstream, then tried them 4) in a tornado, and finally, about 11 pm, I decided to 5) place the face of the painting on my wet palate. The result wasn’t too bad, so I turned it 180 degrees and did it again. With a few more blobs, by 11:30 pm I was done!
