Here’s a photo taken in my new studio, the old church chapel that has fifteen foot tall windows. I am so pleased with the light in this studio, it is just amazing. Pastor Dave Moore, of Islip Presbyterian, is the one who helped me out by getting me this space. If I were to have a million dollars, I couldn’t design a studio with better windows for lighting.
This photo is of a woman, Patricia, who is posing for my next painting. She is really great to work with, and I am very excited to work on this piece. In this shot, you can see that I am only about a half hour in, if I remember correctly, so everything is still in a very rough, gestured state. The emphasis, at this early in the painting, is not at all on details, but rather on the overall shapes, the light and shadow. In fact, I have not even put in the light paint yet, and you can see that I have only painted the shadows so far. Seconds after taking this shot, I had already moved the shoulders around, changed the position of the ear, changed the shape of the hair, etc.
We spent about an hour setting everything up for the painting. While keeping everything as natural as possible, I had her sit in several different ways, angled toward, then away from the light. Eventually, I decided on this pose. I am really excited to be working on this piece, especially because the Salmagundi Club has an upcoming show which is specifically for large paintings.
