This is a sketch of a woman just "hanging out" in my studio talking while I drew and then took some new felt tips and played with them to see what would happen. Sort of like it and it is very fast.

This is a painting I call, "Alma Tadema with TV." It all started when a model of mine was lying on the modeling stand next to my easel and going on and on about TV shows she had watched the night before. I don't have cable or watch TV except movies so this was sort of a mystery to me.

I did some sketches of her in that position and some photos. Later that week I was looking at a picture book of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's work. I ran across the image below of "Welcome Footsteps" painted in 1883.

Since most of the TV shows my model liked were involving romance or datiing in some way it seemed fitting to use this painting as a starting point. She was always talking about waiting for the right "hunk" in her life so the muscular statue outside seemed to be in keeping with her dreams. Wasting her time in front of a TV when the beautiful real world and her dream was just outside.

The work I did on a 30 x 40 canvas was taken from this painting with the obvious changes.

Some don't see the back of the TV or the remote on the floor at first so the title can be confusing.

The couple who bought this piece were very much fans of Mr. Alma-Tadema and nudes so it was a good match.

Footnote. The work of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema is worth studing if you are interested in Hollywood movies, Roman history, storys of Pompeii or the Victorian period in art. My own observation, if I were to cast someone to play him in a movie it would be Anthony Hopkins. [grin] I think he does look like Sir Lawrence from his photos.

    

This next image shows my studio where I have the canas on an one easel with the charcoal drawing and a pastel on drawing board beside it. The pastel was started soon after the sketch to work out color issues but as I worked I didn't like any of it and couldn't get into it so decided to stop and go straight to the canvas. Sometimes that is the best.

Below is the next stage and where it is now. The tree was a thin burnt sienna and the background is a thinned burnt sienna and untra marine blue. All done very light and thin since I don't know exactly where I'm going with the color. I also put in basic details of the face just to start to establish mood by expression and eye direction.

Below are the sketches and final painting of "Friday Night." The whole idea came from a very special Friday  night with a very special lady. The pencil sketch (9 inches high) was done weeks later and the color rough, a watercolor (16 inches high) was done long after that. The actual painting, measuring nearly life size at 60 x 24 inches wasn't finished until some time after the watercolor. The experience was still very clear in my mind and revisiting it with the execution of the painting was as if it were the night before. 

What I want to show here is how a painting progresses from:

1) experience
2) memory
3) rough visual experience
4) finalized composition with painting in mind
5) the actual painting itself.

Please visit the page with the final image of "Friday Night."

This is a preliminary sketch for the painting "Clinging Vine." I show the sketch here to show the process of taking a painting from the first idea to a completed painting. The sketch is onlt 10 x 3 inches but the final is an oil painting on canvas 36 x 18 inches. The final painting can also be seen here as it is for sale. "Clinging Vine."

This sketch is in preperation for a painting I have been planning in my head for a long time. I just like the idea of Eve with the fruit and one piece cut in two with the knife. A lot of symbolism. It is not the way I perceive women but I know some do.

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The sketch below is one I did a while ago from thoughts of all the models with whom I have and do work. The models or the visions of feminine beauty have a deep affect on me and my work. I think this will someday soon become a large painting. Not to be too heavy or dramatic but there is a bit of symbolism here. The Greek column as a melting candle represents time with classical beauty, the stairs represent my sort of dream state heading to the clouds, the curtain behind me is the unknown or what my thoughts are beyond what I let known. My relaxed or almost exhausted pose represents how I feel at time when dealing with all my ambitions to express how I feel about each woman in my life. The brush is the connection between my thoughts and what goes on the canvas. The obvious are the models and how they look at me with varying expressions. I'm sure before it get to the painting it will have more.

This sketch is from sitting and listening to one of my models tell me about her dreams for her future life. Think this might be good for one of my Swirly paintings.

A sketch done from thoughts of my life in the studio. Don't know if this will ever make it into a painting.

What I was thinking when I did this was how much the model/muse affects my work. She is a part of the work and her reactions to it do affect what I do.

I feel best when she has opinions and feels she is part of the creative process.

The pen & ink drawings below were done at a time when I didn't have a full sized studio. The one with the woman was done with combination of a sketch of one of my models and the rest was, of course, fantasy. The other was just plain fantasy of a tree. Both ended up being used to illustrate different poems in two different books of poetry.

Nude on Balcony, 8 x 10 inches

Bubble Tree 8x 8 inches