three brothers

Three Brothers, 12″ x 8″, oil on linen

A while ago, I was looking to buy a Christmas present for my brother.  He was living out of state, and so I wanted to find him a Christmas present that would remind him of home.  I decided to paint him something.  But what to paint…

I sat in the window of a warm pub in Islip on Christmas Eve, sipping a pint of Guinness, stumped by the question of what to paint.  Then I realized, I could do a triple portrait.  I asked the bartender, Lanny, if I could buy three glasses off of him- a Guinness glass, a whiskey glass, and a Stella Artois glass.  He asked me what in the world I wanted them for.  I told him, and he gave them to me for free.

Three hours later, I had this triple portrait of me and my two brothers, as seen by our respective drinks.  I intended to bring the painting to a higher level of finish, but my brother preferred the brushiness.  So, there was his Christmas present.

I’ve been asked by a few people if I could give them rights to reproduce this painting.  They say it has a spontenaity and simplicity that gives it a wide market appeal.  It’s funny to me that, after all those years studying Baroque elements of pictoral design, this is a design that captures attention.