Monday, October 11, 2010

This and that

I spent some time on Sunday painting in the cafe at the Minnesota Historical Society. Here's a bad Netbook photo of a portrait of Archbishop Nienstedt, in progress-



-and scanned later at home-


That's the now infamous 'Preserving Marriage In Minnesota' DVD above his head. I've started this portrait by painting mostly just the midtones.  Now that the general impression of the portrait is established I can work on the details.

I have a number of commissions lately that I'm having a difficult time finishing.  Sometimes you just get into a funk and nothing looks right.  I dislike sending out paintings I know could be better, if I could only wait for that period of time when I felt rested and positive.

I recently finished this portrait of Farrah Fawcett which I originally auctioned a while back on Ebay.  I knew the bidder was a regular collector who wouldn't be too concerned if I tried to work this into something better, so I took advantage of his friendship, but I think he ended up with a better painting-



It finally has that painfully vibrant '70's technicolor TV look which I was originally trying for.

Candysilk on Ebay is another regular collector who received two portraits of Michael Jackson after a long delay at British Customs.  I suspect the customs agents took the paintings out of their package and displayed them in their offices for a few weeks before finally passing them along. I started this replacement portrait of MJ before her paintings finally arrived, but she's been such a patient fan I'm finishing the painting and sending it to her as a gift anyway-


-almost completed....

Little Miz Mixi is a professional lyricist who discovered my portrait of Michael Jackson and Tupac Shakur online and asked for a larger copy.  Completed, but it needs that few more hours to make it something special....



Harley's portrait, still sitting on my drawing board.  So sorry, Diane!-


Even though I have all of these unresolved projects, I've begun a new Barack Obama Nude On A Unicorn painting which I call 'The Rescue Of The Chilean Miners.'  Here's a sketch-



I'm trying for something comparable to my 'Wall Street Obama' painting from last year-