Grandmother's Shawl

L is my model for this little watercolor, (7.25x8.50 in.). She is wrapped in a beautiful shawl made in Indonesia with intricate hand-embroidered flowers all over. This wrap was my Grandmother's.

I loved how the sun hit the far side of L's face and the front of the shawl.

John Singer Sargent painted a number of figures wrapped in these huge, paisley-trimmed shawls that he had collected in his travels. My set-up for this little painting was inspired those paintings.

Face #7

Baling wire face inspired by Alexander Calder. My model was the sculpture of Heracles.

Calder used to bring a roll of wire to a party and render a portrait of each guest in wire!

Love that man's work!

face 6

face 5

face 4

I painted this with oil on canvas board. I used burnt umber and white... fun little value exercise. I still feel that i could mess with it some more. Initially i worked from a copy that i printed off the computer, then i compared it to the image on my computer screen and saw the glaring discrepancy from original to printed image. So much is lost! I'm finishing by working from the computer image, but it is starting to lose the "freshness". Dislike.