Figurative

[Mary Cupp]

This is an example of some figurative work that I do which is intended more as genre than portraiture. I found a lovely gallery this year on the coast of Maine that liked the work and wanted to display it. The owner expressed interest in giving me a big show next year, provided that her business could hold out in this economy. Unfortunately, at this point she is not sure she can remain in business. So I am now looking for another gallery.

One issue that I have faced in painting candid paintings of people at our local farmers market is how to alter them enough that they are not identified in the resulting work. I have the verbal permission of the farmers at the market to depict them but often I will get useable shots of customers and not even know how to track them down. I think the safest thing to do is to generalize or alter the image to the point where identification is not an issue. But I am far too close to these images to know when that point is. Does anyone have any thoughts about these problems?