painting

I can't recall the last time I painted.
I can't recall the last time I painted with oils.
I can't remember the last time I painted with oils and started this painting.

After putting the boys down for their AM nap, on a whim I decided to give this painting another go.

Yes, I know her head is huge and nothing is in balance/sync with the entire thing, but I just wanted to see a) how rusty I was - was I able to at least remember techniques?, b) why I stopped using oils (oh yeah, the clean up sucks if you don't have a dedicated sink like I used to have in college), and c) if there was any love for the hobby anymore.

I found out that I still do enjoy it, and while I love being able to work constantly on one painting, being able to blend with something I worked on 20 minutes ago, I hate thinking it had to not sit forever until it dries and like I said before, cleanup sucked.

I started on this original idea back when I lived in my house in McDonough (2005 is when I moved to Jboro). I wanted to try to recreate a JSSargent painting in a book I had. I like how much humor I saw in the lady in the sitting. It looked like she was about to bust into laughter at any moment. My rendition looks nothing like it or her, but that wasn't what I wound up going for this go around.

It felt good to have a brush in my hand again, the smell of the paints and solvents, and randomly looking at my hands late in the day to see where I missed a smudge or two of paint. All in all, it's good to know the love is still there and I remained a pack rat of these materials for so long.