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The Dilemmas of a Sunday Painter
Michele and Sharon,
Once again thank you for your feedback. Michelle, I agree with you that the value range, especially the shadows, needs to be extended. One little tip that I have picked up from the SOG message board is to paint from dark to light. I have always tended to do it the other way round. This is probably due to being a left-handed painter. When the light is from the right, establishing lights first prevents smudging the darks. However, the problem is as you point out, the shadows tend to be too light.
Sharon, your reply made me smile. I pointed my brother-in-law (the father of the subject and the person who provided me with the photograph that he took) to this thread. His reaction was similar to yours in that, knowing my style, he felt that I was trying to be too "commercial." His suggestion was to make it more contemporary and looser in style - and suggested Lucian Freud or Euan Uglow (he is British after all). It is not often that you have a 'client' say "Hey - loosen up!". So I think that I am going to do just that with this picture - make it a little more "comtemporary" and see where it goes.
To explain the title of this post - I am a full-time academic who paints mainly at the weekends. Eventually, when I retire, I dream of making a modest income from art. At the moment, unfortunately, I do not have the time to "shore up my artistic underpinning" but one day... The process of art at this stage is often more important than the end piece. I often feel most constrained when the client wants one thing and my artistic tendencies are pulling me in another direction. That is why I so enjoy painting members of my own family. So I am going to "Fairfield Porter-ize" or "Hockney-ize" or "Freudian-ize" this one and have fun doing it. Hopefully in the process, I will address Michele's issues. Thank you for reminding me though, to listen to the artist inside. I will post the results and will look forward to your feedback.
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