Today's studio time has been a bit of a failure thus far. I just spent an hour gridding out and drafting a brand new image on a 24" x 36" canvas before figuring out that it just wasn't gonna work. Drag.
However, I banked a few 'couples' at the end of last week, so today I give you "Into the Woodwork" (36" x 36" oil on linen, $1800). This was my first large scale piece of the year, and it felt pretty darn good!
I've been thinking about why I enjoy painting couples so much and have come up with a few ideas. Because my figures have little detail in their faces, their main method of communication is body language. That is what attracts me to a photograph...the tension between figures and between those figures and their surroundings.
When there are only two figures in a composition, that tension is totally pure and draws much more focus. In today's piece, for instance, the gentleman is leaning back just slightly into the woman. In a more complicated, multi-figure composition, that would most likely be lost. Here, it's the crux of the whole image, echoed over and over again in the trees and other forms behind, all leaning into the middle.
I know I said a few ideas, but that's the only one I want to talk about right now.
I'm crossing my fingers and heading back to the easel (easle?). Wish me luck!
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