Looking To The Future

Walter, the subject of this painting, is an AMAZING model. He understands his body and, being a dancer, understands movement. I love working with models who need very little direction. With Walter, I only needed to explain my concepts and a general impression of the feeling I wanted conveyed and he took it from there.

The title of this piece is appropriate not only because of the image but because, a week after the photo shoot, Walter left Wisconsin and moved to Arizona to start a new life. This painting symbolizes the start of that journey and, as a result, is quite special to me. My life has taken many unexpected turns over the years due mainly to my impulsive and adventurous nature and I can honestly say that every decision took me so far along my path and made me such a better person I regret no decisions along the way. Live every day as if it's your last.

This painting is a large (30 x 40 inch) acrylic on canvas. I intentionally wanted the painting to be as photographic as possible, capturing the day and the moment as accurately as possible. In the painting you can actually see the sunlight hitting Walter's beard stubble! This painting has been in several gallery exhibitions and has been well received. I enjoyed creating the painting because I rather recently fell back in love with doing figurative work and Walter has an incredibly toned body that captures sunlight and shadow beautifully. The painting also gave me a chance to revisit two challenges, drapery and the many variations to the "color" white. The white shirt has so much color in it when seen up close. I hope you enjoy the painting. Comments, as usual, are always appreciated. Thanks for visiting my art blog.

Toledo Area Artists' Exhibition

My painting "Market and Powell - San Francisco," a photographic acrylic on canvas, has been selected for exhibition in the 91st Annual Toledo Area Artists Exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio (http://www.toledomuseum.org/taa.htm). This is my third year being selected. This juried exhibition is presented by the Toledo Federation of Art Societies, Inc. I'm eligible for this show because of my prior residence in Lucas County, Ohio. Previously at one of these exhibitions, I won a Toledo Federation of Art Societies Purchase Award (that collection is housed at the Toledo Museum of Art) and a Third-place Judges Award, both for the same painting. The painting which will be in this year's exhibition previously won first place in the Wisconsin Visual Artists Southeast Chapter Exhibition at the Reuss Federal Building in Milwaukee in December 2007. The painting was also included in the Racine and Vicinity Exhibition at the Wustum Museum in Racine this past Summer and the recent “Go Figure” juried exhibition at Artworks in Kenosha.