cherubic face

The picture is going in the right direction (thankfully) and its progressing well. Possibly due to the rain outside which is keeping me off my bicycle. This summer certainly hasnt been known for its heat an sunshine in my part of the world. Im not impressed.

I have two canvasses distracting me... one is still pure virginal white and requires another liberal coat of primer... then the drawing can begin...I'm still not decided which colour I'll use as ground and which I'll use to draw with... something earthy in both cases...reddish?

The portrait is taking glazes well and its growing steadily... Im trying to balance a looseness and also an accurate detail here and there to nail the delicate facial features. Its fun to see the glazes illuminate and build depth into the image. Every step of the way I have images of truly great portraits haunting me...but also inspiring me...

chubby cherub painting

Here is the start of the cherubic portrait I am doing right now.

When I was visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, I took a lot of hard long looks at the 17th Century painters and how they managed to do such beautiful work. Im still rather at a loss to explain how...but I did notice a lot more loose brushmarks than one sees in reproductions. Seems like a lot of very subtle glazes too.

There recently was a fabulous portrait of F D Roosevelt on the cover of Time magazine by Michael J Deas... just wonderful to see how subtle a portrait can be..... But dont get your hopes up that this cherub will be anything like Deas' work.... but one aims high and tries hard. He paints in oils and I play with acrylics.

Time to drag myself to my easel and lift the heavy brush.... in between hefting the leaden brush I am also prepping a canvas for a painting of a house...the home of a good friend of mine who moved away and misses the place. Right now the canvas is white...I didnt think to show it here yet. As soon as I have anything apart from the gesso, I'll reveal it.

Oh and tea will be served shortly..... one cannot imbibe gin and tonic too early in the day. Frightfully elegant and refined if I may say so myself.

"Jeeves! I am in the painting studio. You may bring the tea!" (I hope he is wearing his clean white gloves)