Value Studies

I have been doing these little "low stakes" value studies...maybe four or six where I really get to know the various shapes and elements of the image.  I really see the value of them for finding a 'way into' an image. I love what Julia Cameron says about this,

     "My artist performs best when the stakes are lower." 

And so it is with me, I do my best work when I just do, and try, lots of different possibilities...see what works, what NEEDS to be included, what NEEDS to be left out.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #24

This is a mother & daughter who have been deported and are waiting in the women's refuge, trying to decide their next move. I was fortunate to see a few real Gauguin paintings of his big, solid Tahitian women this past weekend; and I realized that these two women have the same strong peaceful bearing. I will be trying to do them justice this next week. Oh and I decided to paint these brave women BIG, so their dimension is 40x60".

People With No Names - The Undocumented #20

This mother and daughter,( two of only a few women among many males) were very serene in the midst of great uncertainty. They do not know if they are going back to an untenable economic past or forward to a completely unknown future. As they dwell temporarily in a women's refuge and eat at a shelter, I thought about how real the New Testament passage in Matthew 8:20 is: foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.