Evolution of a portrait

I did a brave and appalling thing yesterday by trying to paint myself half undressed, at my age! Lately I have been reviewing my work and coincidentally mounting a mini-retrospective at a local venue. Surprising myself,it seems as though I have been painting nests in various media and with various symbolism for YEARS, decades... So it is time to really look, to really see what I am trying to say. Is there a way to say it clearly enough so that I can move beyond the repetitive nest? How raw is the experience? I feel as though there is a spiritual message I have constantly failed to properly convey. I feel humbled. I feel I have to get back to the studio...

Here are some stages and details to yesterday's experience.

I admire Alice Neel for being able, at age 84, to look starkly, and artistically at herself and celebrate the inner soul. Her painting is at the National Portrait gallery in Washington DC.

This is 18 x 12 inches, acrylic paint and map collage on birch luan panel

studio wall

Strange days. Where does the time go? Yesterday was a snow day... but after 7 hours painting today I realize that I am barely getting enough done in the studio. What should I be working on? There is the idea of GIFTS. Do I make things for Christmas? What value does the work have as a gift in these times?

What else can I afford to do? 

Started a store in the back of my studio in hopes to pay rent, bring more people in....and a few small items of my friends Rosemary and Michael have been selling. That is encouraging. 

Today I painted five paintings- three as gifts for neighbors and two that are larger and not finished and most likely unsell-able. They are figurative, symbolic, and intuitive. That just might not cut it on the commercial market. I haven't painted the figure so regularly in a long time- since this studio shot back in 2002.

 Strange days.

Trail of the nightgown

There are days I shouldn't get out of bed. My mind jumps to fantasies...dreamy mornings roll into steamy afternoons, and musical evenings.
5 x 7 inches, acrylic paint on nice thick arches paper

Swimming upstream

Found this in the archives yesterday and I am amazed at the language. It is a portrait of my husband bones and all. What is even more scary than the sweat rolling off his forehead and the lies emanating from his mouth, are the words: HOPE. Jeeze! They freak me out all hairy in the green sky!

16 x 12 inches acrylic on canvas board. Painted in 2002

Kylies' dad

The nest as an idea and a place to be.

Acrylic on canvas- 12 x 6 x 2 inches

OPEN STUDIO TOUR COMING UP

Here is a choice we can make every morning...
or even at any moment during the day.


I will be raffling off this small 6 x 9 inch print mounted on canvas. If you can't stop by the studio, but are interested- please email me your contact information and I will throw your name into the suitcase of contenders. I made the print through FineartAmerica.com and it is pretty nice- with pads and sawtooth hangar on the back side. No need to frame!
tillystudio@aol.com

Nest with chair, nest with suitcase

The nest painting is just painted over an older image done last fall of shoes, maps and suitcase.

The earlier one was about movement- I was actually trying to pack for a trip to Miami Basel.
This new painting more about being still- though there is the hint, with the vehicle in background, of movement. (I think that is my family exiting)